Texture Assignment

Here are pictures of various textures I noticed today walking around campus! I found myself seeing new textures everywhere I went, these are six of my favorites.

The Thinking Eye

The Thinking Eye by Paul Klee was very different than the first article I read, but I approached the content the same way in both articles.  When I first read through the article, the whole piece did not really make sense to me until I got to the end.  At the end when it has the dimensional signs and their definitions that is when everything kind of clicked.  It also really helped me to decipher the words through the diagrams that were also included.  The visual images were especially helpful for my understanding process.  The descriptions of point, line, plane, and body really helped me to understand the rest of the article.  For example, thinking of a point has a primordial element, all-pervasive was really helpful for the rest of the article.  I think the point was the most important aspect of the article because the point is the beginning of a line and essentially everything is made up of points.  Our in-class exercise also showed me the importance of the point and it showed me that one tiny little dot can make a beautiful picture when they are put together with other dots. 

One aspect of the article that I did not really understand was when the author referred to a line or a plane as having tension.  For me, I do not understand how a line can have tension or how tension between line and line results in a plane.  I really liked that throughout the article there were diagrams of how lines work together to create certain shapes or other objects.  One diagram I especially liked showed how linear movement displaced could product the effect of a black box.  I had never really thought about how drawing overall is just a bunch of lines put together to make shapes.  

This article helped me to break down the logistics of art in general and showed me the importance of lines and points.  The title of the article also helped me to really think in terms of more than just what my eye is seeing.  The phrase “the thinking eye” I felt was very appropriate for this article because you could have just seen the diagrams as a bunch of lines put together, but if you really thought about it you could get a lot more out of the article.

The beginning of the article was especially confusing to me when the author was trying to describe the concept of artistic creation.  One line that I did not really understand but wanted to understand was “It is the study of form, but emphasizes the paths to form rather than the form itself.”  An aspect of the article that I agreed with was when it said “The power of creativity cannot be named. It remains mysterious to the end.”  I completely agree with this statement and I have always thought of art as a mystery to me.  I do not think there is one definition or way of expressing creativity, I feel as if everyone has their own way of being creative and it cannot be explained or named.  One last thought that I had in regards to this article was that the diagrams helped me to see a line as not only straight.  Many of the diagrams had curved lines which created a picture and it helped to remind me to not always think in such a linear manner.

Blog Post #1

For me, reading “The Whole Ball of Wax” was unlike anything I have ever read for a class at Loyola.  I tried to go into this article with an open mind and that was definitely a good idea.  As an accounting major, it is hard for me sometimes to think abstractly and outside of the box.  For instance, in the first paragraph I disagreed with one of the statements that was about art having the ability to change the world.  The article states that most people in the art world would agree with this statement but I find myself disagreeing with this.  I feel that art has the ability to change how people feel about the world, but I do not think it has the ability to literally change the world we are living in.  However, with that said this article is definitely helping me to see that art is part of the whole ball of wax in a figurative sense.  Art can be seen in all parts of life and I am starting to realize that eventually art can make an impact. 

            Another aspect of the article that I had trouble grasping was about how art is about experience and not understanding.  For me, I think of a piece of art and immediately try to understand its purpose and meaning, I do not think of art as an experience.  One part of the article that really opened my eyes and taught me something I didn’t know was about how art can be “a vacation from the self.”  The article states that art is a journey that can help you reflect and create consciousness, which was really refreshing for me to hear.  Sometimes with my major and my past internships, it is hard to think of anything else besides crunching numbers and my usual math related objectives.  I believe that if I think of art in this manner throughout the remainder of the semester then I will get a lot more out of this class than I ever thought I would.

            The last part of the article that I would like to comment on was about how art can be compared to the differences between cats and dogs.  I think this metaphor is not only applicable to art but also can be related to life in general.  It is easy to think of life in only one perspective, but it is important to remember that life can be viewed through so many lenses.  The article states that to understand the cat, which I take that as understanding art, you have to be able to grasp this nonlinear, indirect, circuitous communication.  This was very interesting to me and showed me another way to view the world.  Overall, after reading this article I have a better grasp on what art is in a big picture sense.  To me, art is a way of expressing how you view the world through your creative capabilities.  There is no one definition of art, I believe that it is whatever you want it to be.  Someone’s version of art could be completely different than another person’s, whether it be a picture, a good song, or a landscape.