Final Quarter

Today we started to draw the final quarter of our leaves in class. I think this time around I've got the proportioning and outer lines right. All that's left is to do the inside details, including outlining and breaking down the inner shadows of each leaf.

4 Minutes and 33 Seconds

John Cage's Four Minutes and Thirty Three seconds was definitely different from anything I've ever seen before. I know during the four minutes and thirty three seconds we were supposed to be taking in the ambient noises that we don't usually hear without something to point them out. I did realize this the second time I watched it, I heard planes and people playing Frisbee outside. But the first time we watched it I was thinking too much about what he was doing. As everyone else probably did, the first thirty seconds of the song I assumed he was actually going to play, but was an old guy so it took him longer to get ready. When I realized he wasn't going to play I started thinking about what he is going to do if he does anything at all. By minute two it was clear that he wasn't going to play anything but I could not stop thinking about the other possibilities. Maybe this piece not only makes people realize the noise that just happens to be there, but also the fact that some of us can be a little over anxious be on top of things.

Impressions of School

The first few weeks of school, especially the weekends have been going by very fast. All I feel like I do over the weekend is homework, and I feel like all I do during the week is homework and class. So College is a lot more work than high school for sure. The classes are a lot more interesting though, which I think in the long run will help me stick through it. Being used to having to do the core classes in high school, taking whatever I want is a breath of fresh air. I like being busy also, because I'm used to being bored and needed a break from that. Other than that, The food is OK (though I'm running out of food rapidly for it), my room is getting messy already, and I feel stuck on campus. I also watch a lot more TV here than at home (when I actually finish my homework).

Siebdruck's Society in Translation

The picture that most interested me when as I walked through the Siebdruck exhibit was the pictured titled "Society in Translation". It consisted of a white pyramid in the middle of the page surrounded by a dark background. The pyramid looked as if it was made of solid concrete and had many deep cracks on all sides. It is very simple, as is all his work, but if there is meaning behind it then I've only half figured it out. I think what Siebdrucks painting may be saying is that Society (the pyramid) is becoming more chaotic over time, as do all things in nature. The cracks in society will continue to widen until the pyramid crumbles and it turns to dust. If this is the case, I think his viewpoint is over pessimistic. I'm also curious why didn't he include the fact that people can rebuild things. The fact that Siebdruck uses a pyramid the symbolize society is interesting. Although we may view our societies as super complicated with many ins and outs and complications, it can also be simplified if you view it as the "bigger picture".If you forget about all the little policies and other things we do, you can realize its just what we humans do and how we survive.

Third week, third quarter

As the third week begins I start on the third portion of my leaf drawing. Although I feel like I am making progress on proportioning the leaves in the right way, there are a lot of things that I’m still learning. The teacher explained to me many times, how I need to incorporate the shadows into the breaking down of the leaves into sections. I am beginning to see how much more accurate and proportional the leaves become if you work on these sections separately. I also had a bit of a generalizing problem, which I need to get over. Generalization wasn’t a problem in my first quarter of the drawing, but in the second quarter it is showing up some. After I realized that my first leaves looked like they had no depth, and looked simply like the outlining of a leaf, with my second quarter, I tried to fill in as much as the leaf as possible with more general patterns (for the real hard to see parts of the leaf). It ended up looking pretty good from far away. But when close up it doesn’t look so good. So now we have to draw the third leaf. I’m going to erase some of the detail I did in class and try to make it lighter and more defined.

A picture I found with a strong use of line

September 12 09

Our first assignment for class has been given. We must draw, in extreme detail, a 6x6 box of leaves and other natural things that we were told to collect. I spent nearly all three hours of class on the first, most noticeable leaf. Although I think the stem of the leave is coming out fairly accurately, I'm going to have to pick up the pace if I want to finish in time. I have also outlined the leaf very lightly and am going back to it now to go over in detail.