Tag: art

Have You Seen This New Sculpture?

themichiganarchitect 2 Comments

 

Has anyone seen this beautiful stain-glassed sculpture that was just recently put up by the Central Campus Transit Center??
As an architect, I am very intrigued by this structure. I have so many questions to ask about it!! But I guess that is the fun in creating and experiencing art in general… I’ll write my questions and attempt to give my own answer, so feel free to comment your thoughts, and ask more questions if you have any!! Also, give my instagram (@connecticuto8) a follow if you want to see more interesting views of our Michigan Campus!

Question #1: What’s with the shape?
Answer: Perhaps providing an interesting framed circular view (as depicted on the right), but not wanting to just use a basic circular frame for that view.

Question #2: Why all the colors?
Answer: Maybe a fun sort of way to symbolize the beauty of the ethnic diversity (like the diverse choice in colors in this sculpture) on our campus? And maybe experiment with lighting, in terms of how the different colored glass interacts with the sunlight to affect our perception of the framed view (shown on the right).

Question #3: Why glass, instead of other building materials?
Answer: If this project’s mission was to experiment with lighting, then this glassy material would definitely allow for that sort of interaction, since there would be light reflecting off of the metal framework of the sculpture, and glass would allow for the sunlight being absorbed by the glass to be refracted, thereby affecting the change in tints of the colors we perceive on the glass.

Question #4: Why this specific location?
Answer: Maybe administration finally found that grassy island across from the chemistry building as boring, so they decided to install this piecework there to add more character to central campus, after all, central campus is like the livelihood of Michigan’s campus, and it is in an almost introductory location (for anyone who just got off the bus from North Campus and was just now seeing Central Campus for the first time), so it would put a pleasant view to facilitate pleasant experiences on our campus.

This Is For You

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

This blog post is dedicated to all the people, all of my people, who think that what they like is weird, who think that they’re the only ones who have ever felt or been this way. This is my ode to you.

This is for the people who love music so much that they can’t help but sing along while they walk in the Diag.
This is for the people who can’t dance but can’t help but to move when they hear a song.
This is for the people who sit in their room and watch anime and wish that their lives could be more adventurous, more daring, more brave.
This is for the people who don’t understand why no one will watch every B and C horror movie with him.
This is for the people who spend hours alone in art galleries because nothing could be as breathtakingly beautiful as their favorite paintings.
This is for the people who see beauty in the smallest of things, and this is for the people who see the beauty in the grandest of ideas.
This is for the people who know every name of every actor and actress in every movie.
This is for the people who watch every awards show ever….and love it.
This is for the people who watch The Bachelor, wine or no.
This is for the people who are so afraid to tell their friends they like K-pop for fear that they’ll be judged for it.
This is for the people who love to sing even if they know their voice will never make it to the radio.
This is for the people who spend hours in an art studio even if they want to do something completely different after college.
This if for the people who spend hours watching their favorite TV shows for the second, third, twentieth time.
This is for the people who are so unapologetic about what they love that they are infectious, getting everyone they know to sing along to their favorite songs.

This is for my best friend, who challenged me to leave my comfort zone and try something new, and how it changed my life.
This is for my other best friend, who supported me when I didn’t know how to react when I realized I liked something I thought most people would think is weird.
This is for someone I know that is ashamed of liking something different, when they don’t know how awesome it makes them.
This is for my mom, who has never once complained when I talked to her about something I liked that she had never heard of.
This is for my best friend who watched hours of television with me just because I was having a bad day and all that could make it better was Jane the Virgin.
This is for my best friend who will never let me be ashamed of liking “un-literary fiction” and who will always fangirl with me over reading young adult books.

This is for everyone, anyone who has ever liked something they thought was weird. That liked something that no one understood. This is for when you felt alone. This is when you wished someone would sit on a couch and talk with you for hours about what you love.

This is for your love. Your unapologetic, inspiring love. Your love for your art, in whatever form it takes.

This is for you.

Going Green for St. Patrick’s Day

Hannah Levine Leave a comment

A photographer in a green cut down forest takes a photo and the screen cuts to the black and white photo of a desolated and cut down forest.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day! The day when people frolic and drink Guinness in happy green attire. The day when it’s somehow okay for people to pinch you for not wearing green (consent!) and it’s acceptable to wear every single one of your giant four leaf clover good luck charms. Oh, and it’s the day to celebrate St. Patrick if you’re Irish and/or Catholic.

In honor of this joyous occasion, I thought it would be particularly apropos to talk about going green. Don’t worry, this isn’t about to get political. I’m talking about green art, or environmentally friendly art! You might ask yourself, what is green or environmental art? Well, it all boils down to one thing. Environmental art has to somehow better the relationship and connection people have with our planet. It’s not that hard to do either!

Some people choose to make environmental art that teaches a lesson about how to treat the natural world. Think of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax or Disney and Pixar’s Wall-E. Like it or not, these two have strong lessons about saving the planet inside beautifully written and illustrated/animated books and movies. The Lorax, Wall-E, and other educational modes of art have helped many people understand the environment in new, fun, and beautiful ways. And, Wall-E has even helped to persuade a few people to use their old boots as flower pots instead of throwing them away! Hint: That’s upcycling. We’ll get to that.

Other people create art that directly helps the environment in some way. This may sound difficult, but it can be done with a lot of success, too. One artist, Jason deCaires Taylor, is a great example of someone whose art benefits the environment. He created those underwater sculptures you may have seen to help coral reef habitats thrive, an especially important task during this time when natural coral reefs are disappearing around the world. His work has even inspired other artists to look at how their art can benefit the environment, creating more environmental artists all the time.

One of the easiest ways for an artist to go green is to reuse materials so they don’t end up in landfills. When an artist repurposes old materials for new pieces, that’s called upcycling. Remember that boot planter inspired by Wall-E? Well, that’s not all you can do with your old and unwanted materials. Need ideas? An old tennis racket becomes a great embroidery board. Bottle caps turn into decorative and waterproof tabletops. Old scrap metal transforms into fantastic sculptures. Toilet paper rolls are painted and turned into bracelets. There are endlessly possibilities for these old items, and each one can help protect the environment in a small, yet substantial, way.

But that’s not all green art is. Some artists paint pictures or take photographs showing the environment in artistically beautiful ways to help people understand the importance of it. Others create dances or sing songs. More use specifically environmentally friendly materials like paints and glues. There are actually hundreds of ways people have been making green art. And the best part? It’s never too late to start making your own.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Stay safe and stay green!

Six cartoon shamrocks dance around and play music.

Art Against All Odds

Hannah Levine Leave a comment

Art is a privilege. So many people around the world have had to, or still do, hide their art. But art is special. It’s different. It’s a part of us. And we won’t give it up.

Some people are lucky; making and sharing art is easy for them. It comes in the form of little doodles at the top of a loose-leaf piece of paper during a long lecture. It shows up when you tap your foot to the beat of a song you just can’t get out of your head. It’s even there when you’re cleaning and, mid-sweep; find yourself in the middle of a beautiful twirl as if you’re a ballerina.

For some people, though, art isn’t as easy. Art takes more time, is more difficult to do, more effort to create. Someone might have told these people that art just isn’t for them, that they should do something else with their time. They may have even believed those skeptics. But, that doesn’t mean they stopped doing it.

Today I’d like to highlight three artists who I recently became aware of who, against all odds, have created, or continue to create, something beautiful. These people are Mariusz Kędzierski, John Bramblitt, and Paul Smith.

At only 23-years-old, Mariusz Kędzierski is the youngest of my selected artists. He was born without hands, but that hasn’t stopped him from showing the world his artistic talent. Kędzierski started drawing when he was just 16 and hasn’t stopped since. He uses his arms to draw incredibly realistic pictures and portraits that take him hours to finish, but look as if they could be photographs by the time he is done. Mariusz Kędzierski is a self-taught artist who never ceases to amaze me. His work is truly something we’re lucky to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kb27YkdcIE

John Bramblitt overcomes a different challenge every time he goes to the easel. Bramblitt was born with vision, but lost his sight fully in 2001 after a series of epileptic seizures. For a lot of people, that would have been the end of their artistic careers, but for Bramblitt, his loss of sight was actually the beginning. Bramblitt has developed a few techniques to help him paint, but the most important is his use of raised lines on a canvas, which help him to navigate his paintings. He then uses either Brailed paint tubes or different textured oil paints to create full and vibrant paintings that seem to reflect the colors our emotions would show rather than our eyes. John Bramblitt is an incredibly inspiring man and artist. His work is an honor to see.

And last, but not least, is Paul Smith, the typewriter artist. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about Paul Smith until after his death, which happened almost 10 years ago when he was 85; but that doesn’t mean I am unable to appreciate the beautiful art he made in this world. Smith was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was a baby, which caused him to take more time to learn various tasks and fine motor skills. However, Smith figured out how to make art even with his difficulties. He adopted a typewriter as his paintbrush when he was just 11-years-old and continued to “paint” until he couldn’t anymore due to old age. Smith used symbol keys on the top row of his typewriter’s keyboard. He worked in black-and-white until colored typewriters were invented, taking weeks, even months, to create his pictures. His art is impressive from afar, but even more so when viewed up close so the symbols are seen. While Paul Smith may not still be living, his art surpasses his life and continues to inspire. We are privileged to have the chance to see it.

Of course, these are not the only artists worth mentioning, but they are the artists I have chosen to highlight. All of these people did not see their disabilities as endings, but as opportunities to create beauty. Humans are amazing creatures, and they helped to prove that. These incredible people remind me, and I hope you, too, that art is inside us all, just waiting to come out. All we have to do is find our way, and we can all be artists.

Why Do You Color?

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

Yeah I did it. I caved. I got an adult coloring book.

I mean, it’s not like I didn’t want one. My roommate has 6 and counting, and loves to take it out whenever possible. It’s her go-to stress reliever….and I’m often jealous.

But then I’d remind myself that it costs money, that I’d have to buy colored pencils, that I won’t have time and it’ll be a waste of money. And then last weekend, those excuses disappeared as I stood in front of the table at Literati.

Then, all I could think was which one should I get? So I did it. I caved. I had some gift money left over from a return purchase, and I had an Amazon gift card. So I did it. I got an adult coloring book.

The whole idea of adult coloring books intrigues me a lot though. When I was little, I wasn’t a huge fan of coloring. I liked doing crafts more, something where I could be a little freer. And I think, truthfully, I didn’t have the patience for coloring. Even though you can’t really be bad at coloring (and anyone who says otherwise is lying), I wasn’t ever any good at art.

I don’t talk much about art, as in painting, drawing, sketching, molding – anything in that realm, because I’m not good at it. It’s hard to enjoy something when you’re so frustrated with yourself. I’m a dreamer. I imagine things. And when the imagination doesn’t match up with reality, I’m upset. Why am I not good enough?

That doesn’t stop me from roaming around museums and letting my mind wander. Trust me, I do love art. I had to pry myself away from the Louvre this summer, and I had really only seen barely half of it.

Even so, this side of me, the artistic one, doesn’t really come out very often. I do love art, and I certainly respect and appreciate it, but I don’t do it, so I don’t talk about it very much.

But then these coloring books. Studies show that coloring is a good stress reliever. You put any adult in a classroom full of kids, and put in one coloring station and you’ll see the results of that. When working in childcare I honestly loved to color with the kids. In large classrooms, it can be hard to interact with children playing blocks, making their own towers, or zooming around with a little firetruck clutched in their fists. They’re often in their own world, or in the worlds of their peers, and as an adult it can be challenging to enter that world, even as their teacher. But coloring is a way to connect. You can ask the kids what their favorite color is, how their week at school was, what they like to do for fun at home. All the while, you’re sitting (or squatting, if you aren’t four years old) at a desk, with a pretty picture to take home.

I find adult coloring books interesting because of these two things: the connection with art, and the connection with childhood. Maybe it’s a bit strange to have an adult color, or maybe it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it’s good to have an artistic outlet, or maybe it’s nice just to relax.

Whatever the reason you color (if you do), keep coloring.

Painting a Coloring Book

Maria Benjamin Leave a comment

Coloring was one of those things you did as a child. Taking your favorite characters and either scribbling all over their faces in colors that made no sense or meticulously choosing the right color and shading in the characters in a somewhat accurate way.

I’ve recently come to poses “Lost Ocean” a coloring book created by Johanna Basford that has lots of difficult designs and intricate patterns for coloring.

This is not mean for beginners with poor motor control to color but for a more practiced audience. Throughout my years at UofM I have heard the benefits of coloring as a child and as an adult expounded again and again. It helps relax people, it practices fine motor skills, and is an activity that requires just enough concentration but allows the mind to wander. In a sense I think it might even be like meditation for those who don’t want to sit in pure silence.

I really enjoy the art style of the book and am considering getting some of other coloring books by the same creator. When picking out this book I’ve decided to make the book a painting project. I enjoy painting, and have really wanted to work on creating depth with the medium.

The front cover of the book also inspired me with random golden highlights. I am a huge fan of metallic paints and how they show up much more to my liking than metallic colored pencil.

One evening I decided to break out the paints and start working. I have not gotten very far in my attempt yet. I discovered that some of the lines are so fine and the designs so intricate that I do not have a brush tiny enough to fit.

Trying to paint in such a small space with my thinnest brush really exposed some problems I’d never encounter before in painting. Sometimes the bristles of the brush wouldn’t be perfectly aligned creating random streaks where I did not want them covering over the original lines. It’s also easy to get too much paint on the brush, making weird blobs where I didn’t want them.

I am going to continue with this project after I find a thinner brush. I really think little projects like this really help gain new skills or just more patience. Practice makes perfect and being able to complete the whole book in the the style I want will be rewarding with having it look pretty but also hopefully improve my other skills, like patience and design work.