Hollie Chastain

Bill
10-31-16

This is a talented self-taught artist who does collage illustration mainly for magazines, vintage book covers. Her creative collages inspire me in many ways and lit a spark in me to try to use a different way of expressing black and white. Her name is Hollie Chastain, a graphic designer before, but now a full-time innovative artist from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The background color she uses for her majority of pieces to me is like a sort of emphasizing color which enhances the black and white photography. Also, the composition of these collages is really interesting, particularly the second one.

"I can see myself in the art that I create, and that builds a wall of confidence." She said so. Those two collages above capture my eye at first because of the triangle and the separated-human figure above. They look more like a draft, or the process of an artist's thinking.

 

Dennis Dubois

Bill
10-22-16

I have done some black and white art works including drawing primarily with sharpie markers, playing around with lines,textures and biomorphic contour. Therefore,surrealism, I assume,is always involved in my work.The earliest information (or cognition) that came out of my mind when I was initiated into surrealism for the first time,which I could reluctantly remember,was a sort of combination of dream and reality, organic and inorganic matters, various real factors. Dennis Dubois who's the first artist I researched for surrealism is pretty good at combining living creatures and inorganic matters together, in which his interesting pieces are usually completed with comic illustration idea,
solid comic drawing style.

There are way many possibilities that I can see from Dennis Dubois's art illustration with which I can experiment. Visual impact from a person's work comes from various aspects instead of only black and white background.

 

Joan Miro

Bill
10-12-16
Every artistic masterpiece I have met in my life is a huge inspiration that motivates me to start something new, giving me a completely fresh eye to experiment with new techniques which I may have just learned.
The person through whose pieces I eventually developed a kind of personal style is Joan Miro, who's Spanish artist majoring in painting. His surrealism painting especially his very soft and fluent line work really catch my eyes at the first time I looked at his work.

 

Personnage, Chien, Oiseaux ,Gouache and watercolor on paper.

A lot of biomorphic contour is applied in his pieces, instead of using shading or texture, Miro fill out the negative space with different color, which makes the elements look more isolated and diffused. 

Joan Miró

Dutch Interior II ( Intérieur hollandais )1946

This is one of the my favourite pieces from earlier time by Joan Miro, in which multitude of color movement  is going on. This illusionary surrealistic background brings out and appropriately emphasizes the lines. It is a       conspicuous difference that looks like he simplified his complex line structure and involved more sense of     space in.      

Joan Miro                                                               

The Tilled Field ( La terre labourée )    1923-1924                                                                                   

Alvar Aalto

Bill
10-11-16

Alvar Aalto's path is completely a different story of life as it compares to what the other architects has reached. In the area of architecture particularly in this competitive modernism field, majority of the architects has been concentrating on the the aesthetic aspect, the ornamental value of their work instead of considering other indispensable factors such as comfort or practicability.   To be honest, when I walked into the Aalto University and took my first look onto the constructions standing in front of me, I was not quite pleased. I came all the way to Helsinki from China and was ready to spend my entire summer time to search for inspiration from Alvar Aalto's architecture pieces, but the first thing came out of my mind was that I rather go back and enjoy my summer than wasting my time here: everything  looks quite normal and banal, missing the visual spark of a masterpiece. I was searching for the point that shocks me and keep ignoring the indoor and outdoor space itself---the architect's thought which is within the entire structure, the whole space.                                                                                

The best method of comprehension and interpretation of art inspiration is to measure and experience via body. The most conspicuous reference of Alvar Alato's architecture is the inclined, uptrend semi-circle plane which is usually distributed as the ladder form, a reflection on the classic terraced architecture: the Colosseum in Rome.

Shoot in Otaniemie campus.   The closer I watched into the structure, the less details I saw. Things might get more interesting when people observe on a different, subjective angle. Making the full use of the natural lights as well as structuring a coherent sapce: The stairway is built right in the middle and the natural light comes outside the cafe directly across the stairs to the kitchen on the other side of stairs.  Alvar Aalto is very successful being a architect and a human that the unique feeling when I enter his structure is cozy and comfort. The person who successfully built the world consist of aesthetic, harmony and purpose, is Aalto.

Shoot at Aato Studio (1955-1966). 

Aalto Studio in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki is considered to be a home-like studio due to its design. What I found interesting is that there's no window in the front side street in the studio in the purpose of reducing the distraction from outside. As a consequence, all of the windows are opened toward the backyard, which is also a small space of semi-circle plane. 

What really impresses me deeply is the Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Paimio by Aalto finished in 1933 above. This is probably the most humane, friendly hospital design I've ever seen in my life even compare it to the modern hospital. The stairway of the Sanatorium would be the spark point, the finishing touch in which Pop art factor is softly blended and the using of natural light is nicely used by those big french windows. It is full of vitality and energy as it compares to the traditional hospital. 

As I and people always say, Aalto is such a successful individual as a human being. What's in his every single space and structure and each tiny details is not only the concept and techniques of either art or architecture and pursuit of visual effect, but also the purpose of what he is doing, which, I assume is the reason why there's a lot of moving and empathy floating in my mind and growing deeper as the time has gone by.

About privacy.

Bill rge

10-5-16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrjT8m0hcKU

It's been a common phenomenon today that sometimes people just can not keep their privacy from mass public. With the popularity of internet search and social media, the tendency of accessing internet resources enlarges the risk of private information's spreading and leaking. The consequence of this social study shown in the video is exactly a gigantic issue of privacy safety in social media today which definitely again bring the sight of the mass public to the social media. We, a lot of us has been experienced internet or phone fraud anytime at anywhere. Well I could receive 10 or more phone calls from fraudsters who claim they work for government, police station, various type of enterprise, business or even FBI---which is not hilarious at all but sort of scary. They got phone number and some other information of people and the access is basically the social media on which people activated. Absolutely not a completely repudiation on social media but a warning or a reminder of keeping the privacy information away from leaking. 

Photography phones.

Bill
9/27/16

Speaking of camera phones photography,  it is now universally accepted and attractive today. More and more people tend to use phones as their little handy camera instead of carrying actual cameras out.  It is really a progress on photography or it's actually destroying the aesthetics of photography?
The world is full of Instagram photos and imagines from different kinds of social media, and majority of them are taken by phones camera.  Photography reaches a very highly popular level currently, but things turn to the opposite when they reach the extreme sometimes.  Higher quantity but lower quality, might be the situation now in the area of digital art today, according to some people .
I personally consider phones photography to be a easy way, or, a sort of starting way of photography despite that I love taking my Goddamn digital camera, go hit the street, and I really think phone's lens is not satisfactory at all. But it's convenient. Today, as a quote from the article by Stuart Jeffries saying," People are taking lots of pictures but nobody's looking at them." "People snap away thinking." The problem is not about phones or social media but about how people use them. It depends on whether you regard your phone as your camera or just something that can post with Instagram.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/13/death-of-photography-camera-phones

Social media

Bill
9-20-16

Well we all agree the fact that social media provide chances and access for we human interacting with others all over the world. The virtual connection brings people together by internet but, to some extent social media makes people unsocial. Today the easiest but also could be the hardest thing we all are facing, I think, is to communicate face to face.
I was seriously discomforted by those people who went out for meals together with me and was on their devices all the time. Photos before eating, photos while eating, photos after eating, and instagram posting throughout the entire meals time. They probably want to share how delicious the food is or just posting selfies, which I totally understand and think it's a great thing to do, however, they may do these things at home after the time with somebody else. People are interacting with someone who may be on the other side of Earth online instead of communicating with their friends who sit opposite to them. Just standing on a very subjective perspective,could it considered to be a kind of unsocial isolation?
What a irony.