Post 22: Kazuo Ohno

Kazuo Ohno was a Japanese performance artist who lived to be 103 years old. He used to dance the Butoh style dance, which consisted of emotional and experience-influenced dances. He was drafted into the China and New Guinea war and was captured as a POW for some time. After he returned to his hometown, he continued to pursue his love of dance and did many performances in Japan. In 2001, Ohno lost his ability to walk, but continued to make performances by doing slow, intricate movements with his hands and arms. He died of respiratory failure in June 2010. I chose to research him because he seemed to be very interesting, due to the fact that he was in the army for a long period of time, and used his experiences to create famous performance pieces.

Post 21: Inkblot

In this inkblot, l see a woman with a white shirt on, laying back into the darkness as her feet/boots go into the foreground of the image. In the foreground, I see black pants and black boots with 3 thick ridges in them on the soles. Towards the middle, I see the woman's torso, and she seems to have no arms. Further back, I see the shape of her face and the shadow underneath her chin. The black spots around her torso looks to be the darkness she's leaning into.

Post 20: DaDa picture

The picture above represents Dadaism because it is technically non-art, because it is not visually appealing. I chose this artwork because it stood out from all the others I glanced over online. The artwork is of a man's face being constructed out of random objects like a question mark, a different pair of eyes, a pasted-on mouth and a barber's razor at his throat. The artwork represents Dadaism because its dark, ominous and has an odd meaning behind it.

Post 19: Portraiture Experience

During the beginning of the portraiture project, I found it somewhat hard to find 12 people who inspired me because it was such a vague assignment. I eventually found these people and took some time to evaluate what they inspired me to do. On the other hand, the drawing step of the project was pretty easy. I expected it to be the second hardest part to do, right behind painting. After the pictures were completed, I learned how hard it was to create shades of brown. However, the painting step was the most difficult one, in my opinion. In the end, I learned a lot of new things and I'll be taking what I've learned here into future projects.

Post 18: Colors!

 

The picture above is from the anime Saiyuki, created by Kazuya Minekura. The colors she used created a nostalgic, peaceful vibe. She used many shades and tints within her artwork shown here. For example, Goku's face was shadowed by the straw hat, yet his hair showed the tinted highlights to indicate how shiny his hair is. Also, the different values create a more realistic appearance. The colors were used to create a joyful and somewhat nostalgic tone. The picture reminded me of how I used to play with my next door neighbor's sunflowers, and the colors make me think of the old care free days.