Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Crafty Ways to Create Fun Sculptures Out of Trash

I love to make stuff out of recycled materials, and I am always looking for inspiration in everything. If you are like me you love art, and you hate to waste stuff. If you are like me you will love these projects because they are some crafty ways to use your garbage for good.

A great sculpture project that can you can make using stuff found around the house is a book sculpture. All you will need for this project is an old book, a pen knife, some markers, some paint, a piece of newspaper, and random fun stuff found around your home. All you will need to do stand the book up and open it so that some of the pages are grouped together. Now take the paint and spread it thickly over the book. I like to use paint that you would paint the walls in your house with. I find that this paint is thick enough to hold the pages together in the position you like. After the book has dried you can use your pen knife to cut holes or windows into the book. You can also use the markers to draw on the book or add fun details and patterns. Now glue the found items and you have a fun book sculpture that can be personalized with pictures and other memorabilia.

Another fun project is making a junk mobile. This is a lot of fun, and you can utilize all different things found around the house. The base of this mobile can be made using hanger or similar object that can be bent into a ring. Shape the hanger into a ring after you undo the twist in it. Next find some wire or fishing line. Dental floss also works very well for this project. Next find some fun things to hang from your mobile. I like to use old silverware, screws, bolts, and any other nice charms that will sound nice banging together. Remember to add beads if you like, and you can also bend the utensils into interesting shapes. This mobile is totally customizable, and it makes use of junk that is lying around the house.

A great sculpture project that uses found items is the dish shelf, and this project requires several different dishes such as cups, bowls, and plates, glue, paint pens, and different found items. I like to use different color dishes that have different patterns and designs. All you need to do with this project is stack the dishes on top of each other. Remember to start with the largest plate at the bottom. Next add a cup or a bowl to create height, and add another plate or bowl to create another level. You can stack these dishes as high or as wide as you like, but remember to glue them well, and make sure the shelf is sturdy. Once your shelf is created you can add details to it using found items and paint pens. Remember you can also incorporate tin cans and other interesting items found around your home to create levels of your shelf, and remember the more personal the better.

Creating sculptures are a lot of fun, and creating sculptures that are personal are even better. Remember it is better to make something awesome and useful instead of just throwing away your trash so think creatively not wastefully.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

The Great Artists of the Romantic Movement

 


One of my favorite art movements is Romanticism. This type of art flourished from 1800-1840, and it was inspired by the "dark ages" where "barbarianism, superstition," "gothick, sublime", and "miracles" were popular culture (Gardner, 2001. p.864). Romanticism started in "1770", and it is still alive today; it has even inspired the soundtrack to the epic film Star Wars (Brians, 1998).

This movement was based on the idea that all that was artificial and false should be banned and honest emotion should prevail. This movement was so unique and interesting because it was about rebelling against the common values of society. Imagination and emotion was revered over reasoning and rules in this art movement. Individualism and creativity were highly valued during this time in art(Gardener, 2001). The heart was revered over the mind, and many preconceived ideas on art and beauty were thrown to the wind. It is interesting to note that Neoclassicism was happening before Romanticism, and it was a type of art based on rules and modeled after art from the Renaissance. It is intriguing to see the pattern of art movements, and I realize that the movement based on reason led to a movement based on imagination.

William Blake was an artist of the Romantic Movement that was appealing to me. He was said to be "inspired by dreams," and his engraving titled Ancient of Days is beautiful and inspiring (Gardener, 2001, p. 865). The dramatic use of light and dark in the contrast of the bright yellows and orange of the sky and sun opposed to the dark brown and black of the background and landscape worked very well and added strong emotion to the piece. I also enjoyed the linear aspects of the light and stance of the figure. This piece embodied the Romantic style with its use of emotion and passion.

Henry Fuseli is another great artist from the Romanticism period. His painting The Nightmare embodies the work of the Romantic Movement. This painting depicts a woman sleeping or possibly dead with a demon crouched on top of her smiling; in this picture there is also a dark spirit of a horse or similar creature lingering in the shadows (Gardener, 2001). This painting suggests the idea of dreaming and the darkness of nightmares. Many of Fuseli's paintings portray gargoyles and creatures of the night, and they have a dark almost menacing theme to them.

The Romantic Movement was an amazing and very inspiring movement in art. The raw use of imagery and emotion combined to leave the viewer in awe and wonderment. I love the humor and clever themes. Romanticism was a great time for art, and it is important to know and appreciate the work of many of the artists of this time.

References:
Brians, P. (1998). Romanticism. Retrieved June 9, 2009, Web site: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html

Gardner, H. (2001). Gardner's art through the ages. Orlando, FL: Harcourt College Publishers.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Gishmas 2021 List

 Day 1 Challenge: December 20th – Image or Video What powers GISH? Love, actually. So, let’s spread some cheer. Using the GISH App or search...