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.

What does media mean?

Bill
9/14/16

Media can refer to many different types of either tool or material that can be used for communication, social interaction or for art. it is definitely considered to be a indispensable part of people's everyday life.

People use internet seeking information form this mass world, people use different kinds of social software for communicating and interacting with each other, people use Photoshop for advertising, people use camera for photography...Media has been structured into this age of technology. Today a person may be subjected to more new information in a day than a person before the birth of internet in his entire life. Media makes different types of life style.

Art of Human form.

Bill Wu
5-4-16

Romina Ressa's photography perfectly uses figures, especially the face part of human, for her illustration. She combines surrealism elements with unique artefacts (like traditional beauty) into her photography.

This one somehow includes some oriental elements.

Superman.

Benjamin Zank's body illustrations are very inspired to me not only because of   his manifold expressions and unique view of modern surrealism but also his     combination of surrealism and human figure.

                                               

His sense of space is also remarkable.

Philip Pearlstein

Bill. 4-7-16.

Philip Pearlstein is a American artist who is universally acknowledged as the most representative painter of new realism. He is one of those few new-realism artist who rarely uses photography, slide shows or any other digital image for their creation.

Pearlstein's work commonly utilizes the natural light indoor and objectively describes the object as well depicts the texture in a highly detailed way, which is usually composed of models in detailed and complex interiors, dramatic value and sort of abstract constructing.

 Oil on canvas, created in 2008.

“Mickey Mouse Puppet Theater, Jumbo Jet, and Kiddie Tractor With Two Models” (2002) by Philip Pearlstein.
His sense of space is the thing that impresses me from his pieces: what I can see form these pictures are not only his unique understanding of human figure but also his sense of space, which is appropriately blended together.

Philip Pearlstein 'Nude on Striped Hammock', 1974.

Keith Haring.

3-31-16.

Keith Haring, who was born on May 4th, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, was a great American artist famous for street culture art.  Keith contributed his talents and resources to variety of cases. He produced sculpture and paintings for health centers, created emblem and logos for public services agencies, even established a foundation in 1989. But the most impressive thing of this man was his widely recognized art.He studied painting in School of Visual Arts in New York City.

This is the Political line finished by Keith in which variety of shapes are well managed in a space and what I like is this piece shows both balance and variety incredibly. Those shapes are really pop out if you look into it, I would say.

 Dog,1986 created by Keith Haring. 

Pop art elements and human figures art in Keith Haring's art pieces.

Jacob Lawrence.

Bill.

Jacob Lawrence is a African-American painter who's famous for his modernist depictions of his daily life as a native American. Born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he experienced the Civil War that brings some changes to his panting during certain period: his work has been focused on the justice and freedom of American within the style of every day life. In late 1960s, his work was characterized by every day imagery and optimistic expression.

    Café Comedian. 1957.

        Workshop, 1972.

The Swearing In No. 1, 1977.
 I personally some of his pieces that are positive and optimistic expressions are sort of close to pop art in some ways.