Assemblage

"Assemblage" is the 3-D version of "collage”. "Found object fragments," "discards," or "throwaways" (artist's work to look at: Schwitters, Cornell, Rauschenberg, Bearden, etc.).


These things are organized by their specific elements. The resulting groups are then arranged into compositions of art.


Extending to many cultures of people living in family, religious, work, and various other groups; We could be viewed as a complex living version of "assemblage”(Webster 1. a group of persons or things gathered or collected).


We have “found” each other by chance; either by blood, common goals, or a certain chemistry. These connections help to formulate new ideas, innovations, and even new generations. John Anderson

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Check Out Photographer Kelly Stachura.




Kelly photographs a wide range of subjects proving she knows her way around the art of photography. 
My personal favorite is the suite of dancers.
Her dance photos capture the strength, stretch, and balance of the dancers in compositions that suggest motion before and after the click of the camera. She likes to catch the dancer at the end of a phrase in the completion of a pose at full extension.
Respect for their athletic and artistic prowess is evident in each image along with their humanity. 
The feeling and the beauty of artistic expression by the human body is meticulously revealed in explicit detail. Her use of color, composition and soft lighting transform strenuous, challenging work into the smooth, flowing movement of the dance performance. 
Kelly was very well known in high school as a rising star in the visual arts. Her involvement in various artistic activities today present her as an accomplished artist. 
Visit her website and explore the wonders of her expertise.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

#6 “The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties”. Elliot Eisner


What this means to me?
“The devil is in the details.” Focusing on the finer points in the process of art requires more time and more thought. During the process of making art, your actions reveal your thinking as a visual message. Breaking down the steps along the way to make deliberate marks, gestures, and/or color changes control your expression and avoid giving alternate signals in the work. Poor craftsmanship when technical excellence is required can be a distraction to the viewer. 
Usually surface adornment is an issue of scale. Small hand made, fine art jewelry in silver and gold show a tighter control in polish and pattern. While large scale cast bronze sculptures by Henry Moore tolerate a looser, more gestural expressionistic surface texture. Both works are well planned, and thoughtfully controlled by the successful artist. 
A work of art should appear fresh and spontaneous; not overworked. It takes decades of experience for the successful artist to go directly to the critical issues of a work in a very quickly executed manner; and call it finished. If it looks so easy to produce and you can say “anyone can do that”; then please try it! JA
“It often happens that in our understanding of a work of art, it is the indescribable that lifts it beyond the scope of the most convincing analysis. Thus the effect comes from what the image does not reveal, the unseen world implicit in the photograph. Such is the vision of an observer like Henri Cartier-Bresson, who was interested less in the pearls than the string holding them together. The truth is found not in a comprehensive assortment of facts, but in the spaces in between.” (Pierre Assouline Henri Cartier-Bresson A Biography Translation-Thames & Hudson 2005, original 1999.)