Confidence in Your Art

Jessie Ware on Learning to Trust Herself is an interview that highlights the increase in confidence from first album to second. Artists of every type do this, doubting themselves, and critiquing their work harder than they would another's. Earlier today I was bad-mouthing my own sketch of the Disney princess, Belle when the person beside me told me that is was really good.

The old saying, practice makes perfect, hits home if I think about where I was with my artwork before, whether a month or a year ago. The first still-life I did in Art Class was of one of my moms shoes, and while the shoe was pretty, I didn't do it justice. For the next still-life the instructor made scenes on the stage, I chose to draw an antique chair that had the bottom falling out with a hat perched on top of it. While that piece could still improve, it is much better than the poor heel.

The image above is the second still-life, before it was completed.

 

The article relates to Honors World Geography because music influences people, this artist tends to write dark, unrequited love songs which could influence the people listening to it to become bitter about their unrequited love, or they could be happy that they have love, it depends on the situation that the listener is in. In the book we recently finished reading in Honors English I, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William fixes radios, and eventually learns to power them, songs from this artist are on the radio frequently, this interview was on the radio! It's strange to think about people so far away possibly being able to listen to the same things that we do in the US. How would this have affected someone in Africa differently from you?

Works Cited

"Jessie Ware On Learning To Trust Herself." NPR. NPR. Web. 07 Nov. 2014. .

 

Book Covers

In The Jacket Designer's Challenge:To Capture a Book by it's Cover Peter Mendelsund is interviewed and he reveals some of his designing process. According to Mendelsund a book jacket has two primary jobs: to represent a text, and to sell it. I would not appreciate not getting as good of a book cover because I wasn't dead, would you? Mendelsund doesn't feel the pressure of having to impress the author with the cover so he doesn't hold anything back when he creates covers for books whose authors have passed on.

The process. The book must be read before a cover can be done, then Mendelsund looks over the notes that he put on the manuscript. He sometimes makes a sketch or collage, he may work on a computer design. After the cover is made he puts it on the book and tries to forget about it. I have to do this with my artwork and essays that I have been working on for a long time so that when I revisit it my mind is fresh and can see the errors clearer.

Mendelsund has written two books himself, I am interested in reading Cover. It is a collection of hundreds of his book covers and commentaries on his technique. The other, What We See When We Read is about how words gibe rise to images in our minds.

Which of the books would you like to read more, and why? Have you read any books that had the cover designed by Mendelsund? What do you think of his work?

"The Jacket Designer's Challenge: To Capture A Book By Its Cover." NPR. NPR. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. .

Mistaken Art

Minor White, Who Lived A Life In Photographs, Saw Images As Mirrors makes a statement about one mans way of using his love and work to express everything about himself. Minor White used his photography as a mirror, to express himself in a way that he could not with words. He also used it to express his love. Minor White was a closeted homosexual throughout his entire career because if someone had found out he could have lost his source of livelihood. When questioning whether or not he could be a good photographer he was told by Alfred Stieglitz that if he had ever been in love that he could be a photographer.

Photography is not thought of as art when pertaining to selfies or a quick picture of your new sweater that you are going to post on instagram. Photography can be an art. I love taking photographs of nature and beautiful things, but wouldn't call my most recent selfie art, or even photography. Photography would be my ideal profession.

What do you think of when you hear the term fine arts? Probably not Photography, at first. Do you think that ever being in love has anything to do with photography?

I would say that alot of things could be counted as a fine art if you had a good argument, in my opinion, language is a fine art. Being able to speak gracefully in whatever language you can, that is a talent, and an art. Love absolutely has everything to do with photography, but so does hate, and fear. It's all about emotion, emotion that you can capture and convey with a camera. You must not necessarily fall in love to be a good photographer, just to be able to capture something in a loving light. 

This relates to my HWG class because Minor White was different and he used his differences to do something different. He changed the community around him with his art. Now he is affecting people who hear about him, even though he is dead. It also relates to my ELA  class in the way that Minor White told stories of himself through the photography. Literature does the same thing with words. People have written biographies about Minor White, I think that they would be very interesting to read

Stamberg, Susan. "Minor White, Who Lived A Life In Photographs, Saw Images As Mirrors." NPR. NPR.

Web. 18 Oct. 2014. .
 

Characters Role in Engaging Readers

 How Emotional Story Telling Makes A Good Story Great For Business opens up eyes to how characters affect society. Andrew Stanton, a film director and screenwriter, thinks that to write a good story you have to know the ending before you get to the beginning. "From the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings." This reminds me of that feeling of hearing of an ordinary human doing something that wouldn't be expected.  The feeling that if they can do something that moves people to want to do something great, then others can too. If they try.

Relate-able stories are most enjoyable. Knowing that someone else has the same problems that we do makes us feel better about the hectic life that we're living. Even if a fictional character shares your same hopes and wishes, but something is holding them back, the author had to get the idea from somewhere. Average characters that conquer their "Achilles Heel" are inspiring. Average people like to be inspired to do something above average.What is the quality in a character that makes them interesting, and someone that you want to read about?

The topic of characters relates to literature in my ELA class. The article also relates to my HWG class because of the way that characters affect society. If a character in a popular novel overthrows the government. Then someone in a society similar to that of the novel reads the book and shares it. It could start an uprising against the government. Cultures can change with influence in any form, even a work of literature.

 "How Emotional Storytelling Makes a Good Story Great for Business." The Content Standard by Skyword How Emotional Storytelling Makes a Good Story Great for Business Comments. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. .

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This is an assignment for class so it may not be the 'average' blog. Every two weeks I will post something that will open a discussion about an article that relates to at least two of my classes. My classmates and I have to comment on each-others posts. I hope to find interesting articles about the different types of art in the world and have sophisticated online discussions about them.