Week 11

I had the most fun studying the Egyptian art in how they created and used pyramids not only for art but other means as well to show their perfectness compared to other countries/people’s way of building structures. It was quite nice to understand how art was made in those times to what Egyptians had available to them.

I was drawn mainly by the fact that they are Egyptians. Out of all the countries in the Middle East area, around the Mediterranean Sea, I have been most curious about Egypt for what its based upon and the nice art they have posted up in various places not only on walls but how buildings were made and all that jazz.

Being intrigued would be about how they had the sphinx and all that jazz. Another thing that got to me would be stuff like the Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun, or other pieces of art that are similar to that. Pyramids I had already received on how they are and what/why they were formed/built. Nonetheless it was how they got the design to make these flat yet 3-D like forms with not a whole lot of expression in them. Their method of expression was in the format or environment in which they were posted on. Like for example, the Palette of Narmer in which there was absolutely if not a little expression in their faces but you’d know what was happening and the expression upon their face when he was going to smack that dude with a hammer to put a nail through his head. Another thing to put in this would be in how they did coffins for important people and what they did with their body. The design on them being for example the Inner Coffin of Tutankhamun’s Sarcophagus was of laid out gold and how they indicated various things upon it. The arms were put among the chest while wings would be put upon it starting from their wrists to indicate that they would be flying away to a different world perhaps. Another would be in how they put out their love upon the leg or it could be their worshipers saying that they will forever honor him and all his worth. Then there is the whips in both hands indicating that he has power and he meant to make his country/area powerful in how they did things, no lazy or bad people or else they would be tortured/killed. The last one to point out would be hieroglyphs on the side of the coffin pointing out various things, I couldn’t say what they are but if I was to guess it’d be in how he was wonderful in all he did and how they will miss him or something like that. In other words it’d be stating his glory and its worth. All in all Egyptians had a unique way of doing art and out of everything it was always how they made the faces so emotionless though there was always something that’d give a big expression, or at least I would be scared or happy in the moment.

ART235 WEEK 8 POST

            I am going to answer to the first option you had given us for this post

            These two portraits are very interesting in how they wanted to relay their messages they seemed to try to give their people. First off my more favorite one of the two is Bust of Commodus as Hercules (BC) because it had a very peaceful message to it though it was initially a little intimidating. The intimidation was probably to show his enemies that he was not going to fool around with them and that his rule was nice and good but still a little stiff to get what he wanted for his people. If one were to look more into detail on this picture it is shown that it seems he is handing his people apples in his left arm to show kindness and that he doesn’t just care about power but toward his people to flourish and grow. I translated what seems to be a lion or beast’s mouth/face on the top of his head as a hood to be a sign of strength that he had killed it so he had the power to rule over his people. If one is to translate it though it had to be looked into details, as it is not easily interpreted right off the bat.

            The next portrait being the Head of Caracalla (HC) was quite the face to look upon. This portrait/sculpture was very aggressive if not serious as well. It doesn’t look like there was any room for kindness toward whoever was looking upon it as the eyebrows were very much tilted downward toward his nose to show his feeling. Obviously it was a portrait to show a lot of power and scare the pants off his enemies as the enormous detail put into how the wrinkles were positioned across the face along with how the hair was designed as well. If I had to make a guess this was more toward his enemies but one idea I had gotten would be to point toward immigrants that he has no room for play and that his place is serious for no foul play. Unlike BC this one is very easily understood.

            Comparing the two together it seems that their way of showing their messages are quite different. A good similarity between the two though is to show their people that they mean business. They both used the same material to put together their piece and gave quite a bit of detail into the hair but HC wins the battle in the detail into the face as it had quite a bit more expression and wrinkles to explain it. Though BC wins the battle with more to show it is obvious that HC had originally had a body or so it would seem since it seems that it had been knocked off a statue and though that had been destroyed the head survived to be shown today

Week 5 option 1

            I am going with option one being the Minoan culture and its Bull Leaping “BL” (pg. 88) piece. For the comparison I will be going with the Egyptian culture and its Picking Figs “PF” (pg. 63) piece. Looking over the Minoan piece it is basically centered on a bull with three people doing various things around it. One seems to be holding or restraining it, another being upside down a little above the middle/back of it, and the third is behind it with his hands in a position as if he were to catch the person above the bull or something else. The Egyptian piece is centered on a tree with figs and three baboons while two men on each side are picking the figs with the baboons. Researching the two pieces both are big paintings that were done on big walls to show his/her art. For the BL piece it was designed and created upon a plaster surface being of wet or dry though one had ups and downs compared to the other. The PF piece being common with Egyptian artwork is made of mud plaster surface with a possible thin limestone layer as well to be more accepting of paint to stay on without decaying in the dry and hot climate. Comparing the two it is interesting in how they both are very simple in their design but at the same time they are complex in how to interpret it, as it isn’t easy to do so. BL is actually of people leaping over bulls and PF is a race between the baboons and men to pick the most or all the figs before the other does. What is easily identifiable is the fact that BL is very flat in depth since it does not have any shadow among it and PF has some on the stomach and legs of the two men but. Though the tree or baboons don’t show depth with shadow the figs do show a bit from what can be seen. Though PF has depth it seems Egyptian culture from the pieces I’ve seen don’t do too much detail in color or not a lot of different colors being brighter but prefer to be a little greyer/dimmer. This could be that they already have a bright sun to worry about most of the year they don’t want brighter artwork to add to this brightness. BL on the other hand and their culture like to give a good concept in different colors, or at least colors that would relate to one another unlike PF with the people being so much darker and gaining more attention than the tree with its baboons/figs. All in all it seems to me that Egyptian art can be easily identifiable since their work of art is very organized in what is where to describe what they’re trying to imply. What could seem to be unique to me about Minoan artwork is that they like to be Greekish but more flatter and straight forward in their pieces.

Week 4

            It seems that they Pyramids of Giza and the Ziggurats of the near east have quite a few similarities that outnumber differences from what I can tell. It seems that both are based upon a big rectangular like base which get smaller and smaller as they go up with the pyramids ending in a point and the ziggurats ending with just a flat top. The infrastructures they use make them even more similar than people think they are since the pyramids originally were just one block being called a funiary, then the stepped pyramids basically being a big pyramid like stairway to the top but with the stepped pyramids they obtained a bit of design from the ziggurats as they were of a rectangle with the same design also. However the ziggurats didn’t make it too obvious that they’re stepping upward getting smaller as they go. Going inside of these structures it would be like the pyramid is just a covered version of a ziggurat. The ziggurats had their single room up at the top to be a holy room for showing their loyalties to a leader or god which offerings were given and placed within the structure. While pyramids had their room be at the top for which the tomb of a leader would be for worship, however the room was covered by the pyramid itself still and was usually located around the middle of the total height of it. Basically physically looking at it the pyramids was just a ziggurat because of the side and front stairs but without the side walls/side they had. Adding to this the stairs didn’t just stop three quarters of the way up but continued until they got together. For what the two were made of it was quite different and quite puzzling in how they did it in the first place. Ziggurats were made of just mud bricks as they are called but could be small in size. Pyramids on the other hand had much bigger stones which was limestone that weighed on average around 2.5 tons each and then more better limestone for the outer layer of the modern pyramid. As far as why these structures were it was quite similar most of the time as a place to worship and honor. However the pyramids were built to worship or honor a leader while the ziggurats was not only to worship and honor a person but instead was for the gods also such as the Nanna ziggurat was for a leader and their moon god known as Nanna or in another term, Sin. While Egyptians did this to make sure the leader would have a great and lovely time in the afterlife with worship and gifts to what they believed since they thought if the body were in good condition then the spirit would be also. Sumerians would 

Post 2 "Venus of Willendorf"

            Being of the Venus of Willendorf at 11.1 centimeters in height and aged to ~20k-24k BCE it is quite detailed but only what seemed to be in specific areas. The piece was discovered in 1908 by Josef Szombathy and obviously not of the region since it had been created from limestone which is not native to the area. What got me thinking while viewing this sculpture is, where is the face, where are the arms, why so much detail in sexual spots, and why the big beanie/hat on her head. In these questions some were answered, as it could be that the arms were just taken off somehow and the face was just covered. As for the others they remained unanswered. In this reading I had felt like this sculpture was merely just a doll like toy for children probably since it is so small. While reading I had came about another interesting thing being of it is a sculpture of a woman, they were usually not viewed as being good enough to be painted or sculpted back in those days. Basically in other words they did not receive as much attention or status as the men did. Being of this sense the sculpture gained quite a bit of attention to figure out when it was created and why. When researching Luce Passemard had created the term steatopygous, which is quite the word when trying to say it, but none the less it was to relate to be racial to women tribes of Africa like the Bushmen. Another assumption that got to me was the fact that it was a piece created to tease fat women of the age. The thing that I asked myself was that people, not just women, could be fat back in that time? It had to be a tease of a rich family being able to eat quite a bit in order to gain that much fat on her body but then again perhaps those women in the day just ate the wrong food to get them a lot of body fat. However, since the model was quite big breasted it could’ve just been a goddess, not just a woman. What pointed to this was it was created in a different area anyways and had similarities to the Greek “Goddess of all” or the “Mother of all”. So in conclusion it could’ve just came from a different country while some people went to Australia and happen to drop or leave it while there. 

Intro about... well... me

Hey my name is Jason Kraght I am 22 and a student at CWU for a BA in Graphic Design. I'm taking this class of Art 235 to get the basic classes over with to get into the more advanced classes for graphic design. As for me I am a playful guy in the sense I like to have fun from time to time being happy and getting others to be happy as well. I'm a christian and love to hang with friends from Chi Alpha being my good guys on campus but I'd like to see some people from my group so we could get together and work upon the assignments that we'll have for this class and/or quarter. Anyways that's the basics of me, contact me if yah wanna do anything for the class.