Category: 131

I love Cindy Sherman.  

She is the epitome of a woman who is happy with what she is accomplishing in life and is thriving.

Cindy Sherman is one the most important photographers alive today.  Almost the entirety of Sherman’s collection of photography are self portraits, but what differentiates Sherman’s work from others is her fantastic use of costume and make-up.

Her passion for costumes stems from her childhood when playing dress up.  She didn’t dress up to become a ballerina or a princess, in fact her perspective of dress up was to entirely change the way she was viewed and really wanted to change the angles of her face to become something different.

Sherman has stated that during her shooting process she rarely has an intent on how her audience shall react.  The only time this statement was not true was during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, when the resurgence of painting became mainstream again.  Sherman was struggling to make her big break as male artists were given all the attention and praise.  With all of the praise being given to the men, Sherman grew frustrated with the fact that her work was being overlooked and so she chose to retaliate in her own way; photos.

I was extremely lucky to go see her work earlier this year at the Vancouver Art Gallery, her larger than life photographs truly left in awe.  Surprisingly the photos that truly made me feel the most emotion were her photos using prosthetics and dolls.  The way that she placed the dolls in suggestive or almost victim like positions thoroughly made me freeze in shock-I was unable to move or even look away.

Cindy Sherman is such a genuine artist, she makes art that challenges the audience alongside creating pieces just for her own personal thrill, a good balance between the two.

https://www.thebroad.org/art/cindy-sherman

https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/32147/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-cindy-sherman

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cindy-Sherman

https://vimeo.com/228996446

Marcel Duchamp who was originally a painter-his first piece that gained a large amount of fame being the painting “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2” (1912).  After 1912 though, Duchamp’s work in paintings decreased greatly and found his true passion; readymades.  

His well known piece from his collection of readymades would have to be “Fountain”, a urinal flipped upside down which Duchamp had submitted to an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York. 

Unsurprisingly a huge controversy arose out of this, many criticizing Duchamp’s work as an assault to the conventional understanding of the nature and status of art. 

Duchamp’s work will always have divided views, considering the majority of his work being ignored by the public until the avant-garde movement of the 1960’s where groups such as the Surrealists deemed his work as important.  Although in the Surrealists’ eyes he was important, critics and “official” art circles still say nothing but a failure of an artist.

Although Duchamp viewed himself as an artist and anti-artist at the same time and with that, he is considered to be one of the leading artists of the twentieth century.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marcel-duchamp-1036

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp

Pale skin, bright hair and in depth detailed faces that illustrate such emotion on a piece of canvas.  John William Waterhouse’s depictions of women being portrayed in such romantic and melancholic scenes are so touching to my heart.

Waterhouse was an English painter during the Victorian era, his specialty most well known are his large-scale paintings of classical mythological subjects.  There is some sort of underlying emotion that lays beneath his paintings, be it the slightly pale glow that illuminates his figures or the distinct longing look in each of his subjects eyes.

In the beginning of Waterhouse’s artistic career he pursued sculpture while studying at the Royal Academy in London.  In 1874 he shifted his major to painting, ‘Sleep and His Half-Brother Death’ being one of the earliest pieces that made Waterhouse realize his potential in the field of painting. 

Waterhouse’s pieces knew how to pull at the strings of the mind and knew how to make melancholy so beautiful.

https://www.thecultureconcept.com/john-william-waterhouse-beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-William-Waterhouse

This project had a rocky start to begin with.

My original typeface that I was eager to do my research on was Eckmann but after a good week of trial and error there just wasn’t enough information to fill up six pages of information.

Luckily, I was able to find another typeface that piqued my interest and that was Bank Gothic.  Bank Gothic has this strange futuristic feel that I truly can remember being used around me growing up.

I decided to only use green for the colour as I always associate green with sci-fi or futuristic things as to me green represents laser or the lights used intergalactic spaceships.

If I were to give myself a mark out of ten I would have to give myself a solid seven out of ten.  There are definitely a few visual errors that needed to be covered up in white out which tainted the picture a bit but aside from that I am at peace with this project and glad that I got the opportunity to learn more about an individual typeface on my own.

Citations;

https://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/greatest-fonts-countdown-74-bank-gothic-91412896

https://books.google.ca/books?id=woFnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.linotype.com/5323/the-original-squared-sans-redrawn-bank-gothic-and-morris-sans.html

http://typedia.com/explore/typeface/bank-gothic/

https://www.writework.com/essay/significance-bank-gothic

If I were to ask you to describe George Stubbs in one word, almost every single person would say; Horse.  

George Stubbs’ most famous pieces of art revolved around horses, these magnificent beasts that humanity had somehow gained the ability to tame.  Stubbs was mainly self taught although he was apprenticed for a short time by an unknown artist but all in all, Stubbs educated himself on the art of painting. Stubbs’ work fell in between the Neoclassicism and Romanticism eras. 

In the 1750’s Stubbs dived into and dedicated himself to studying the analysis of the horse’s anatomy.  After eighteen grueling months in a farmhouse in a remote town in Lincolnshire, Stubbs finally came out victorious having perfected the form of the horse. 

After moving to London, Stubbs gained popularity and established a name for himself in the portraiture aspect of horses.

Stubbs did not just paint horses, he painted a variety of animals ranging from monkeys to rhinos and so many more.

Stubbs’ impact on the perspective of horses and other animals was truly monumental and carries a beauty that is indescribable.

Hieronymus Bosch was quite a vivid painter. 

His pieces consisted of visuals and images that if given only a few moments to gaze upon, the human eye could barely comprehend.  Bosch chose to take the elements of painting he had learned to convey reality, reverse those principles and create horrors that shook the human body to the core.  These elements of horror specifically incorporated in Bosch’s pieces representing hell were the main reason he achieved such fame.

Bosch was well known for his nightmarish pieces but he was also able to create light and airy scenes as well. An example of the contrast between the horrendous and pleasing scenes is shown in his most famous piece ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ 1515.

Although Bosch’s paintings are well known and have been dissected in tiny detail, very little is known about him personally.  Bosch’s life was quite mysterious, even in 1516-the year he passed no one ever knew his true age.  One thing many can agree on is the fact that Bosch’s pieces of horror were far ahead of their time and still drive fear into any who look upon it.

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