Ashley Explores The Arts

Location:

If I could hypothetically go on a trip to any art museum in the world to see a specific artists or exhibit, I would love to go to London and see the Tate museums. In London they actually have four different Tate museums, just based on their location. These locations are the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the Tate Liverpool, and the Tate St. Ives. I would love to see all four, but if I could take this art trip then I would specifically go to the Tate Modern. It is open on Sunday’s-Thursday’s from 10 am to 6 pm. On Friday’s and Saturday’s, it is open from 10 am to 10 pm (they are open for the working-class people, I approve). I would like to actually see two artists exhibitions that are displayed. I want to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room, which is on display in the spring of 2021, I am assuming after they reopen on May 17^th. I also would like to see Kara Walker’s Hyundai Commission, on display from October 2021-January 2022 and maybe another one of her permanent artworks, I am not sure if it is permanent or not. The other exhibit of Walkers would be, Grub for Shakes: A Concession to the Negro Populace. Kara Walker’s exhibition is just a bonus in seeing when at the Tate Modern.

About the Art:

I chose this specific museum to go to because I really wanted to see one of Yayoi Kusama’s exhibitions. When I saw that they had an upcoming exhibition of one of her mirror rooms, I was even more excited to travel there. I had tried to plan a trip to Japan and see more of her works there, but I do not speak Japanese and it was making it difficult to understand when her artworks were at certain museums.

The exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s that I really want to see is called, Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life. She created this in 2012 for her retrospective at the Tate Modern. It is also one of her largest installations she has ever made. The reason she made these mirrored rooms is because she wanted to give a “hallucinatory scene” but creating everything by hand was too hard, so she used mirrors to create the fields she wanted. This exhibition room is of course a room with mirrors on all sides, so when a person steps in, they are surrounded by endless space. In this particular mirrored space, there are purple string lights that seem to dangle down and then reflect into infinity. It is like stepping into a world where purple stars surround you.

About the Artist:

Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary artist and is still alive at the age of 92! She was a part of the Pop Art Movement which started in the 1950’s and ended roughly in the 1960’s. Pop Art is actually a small section of the umbrella term Modernism; and Pop Art began in England and New York. There were a lot of Japanese artists at the time, hence why Yayoi Kusama is a huge part of Pop Art, but because of the time, the American government imprisoned any Japanese Americans. This art movement also had a lot to do with popular culture and appropriation. Its biggest influences being advertising and consumerism. The artwork was meant to represent banal and ephemeral items. Banal meaning throw-away items or items easily disposed. While ephemeral means short lived or in the moment items.

Yayoi Kusama was born in Japan into a wealthy family, but still struggled because of the times there was hatred and racism towards Japanese people, along with that, she was female. Kusama actually had issues, as did most females, with male artists attempting to copy their work and then taking credit for being the first person to create it. This is why we need to support living and non-living female artists. In the 60’s, after Kusama moved to the United States, she began creating textured and unusual works. Most of her works were actually phallic like and covered in polka dots. Polka dots are a huge part of Kusama’s life, she tried to incorporate them in almost all of her artworks. As mentioned, a lot of her artworks are the mirror rooms because they help create the field perspective that would have taken her forever to create by hand. I would be so excited to actually experience one of her mirrored rooms because they look so magical and feel like they would be surreal.

Budget and Extra Stops:

In total, I believe this trip would cost roughly around $3,370. I first plan to take the trip in possibly August, from the 1^st-5^th because I would have to stay longer than just a night in London. My plane ticket with British Airways would cost about $1,803. This would be a round trip, leaving on July 31^st and having only one stop. The flight would be about 19 hours I believe, which makes sense for the pricing. Before I even did that, I would need to acquire a passport and that would cost me about $175. Why are they so expensive? I have no idea, why is anything so expensive? After getting my passport my next thing would be to buy the flight ticket and then book my hotel. I found one that is only a few blocks away from the Tate Modern and that is the Novotel London Blackfriars. A stay from August 1^st-5^th would cost me about $799.39, which actually is not that bad because it also includes breakfast. Therefore, I would not have to budget for breakfast because I can just use my resources. There is a good question if I would even eat breakfast though, because of the time zone differences, my body would be all out of whack. Since my body would be all out of whack, I would need something to keep me caffeinated and awake, so I would budget for $50 on coffee. Seems like a lot, but I do enjoy my coffee, especially from a different country, could be exciting. For food I might budget around $250 for snacks and actual meals because I am not sure how much everything costs in locations, but I just want to make sure I have enough to cover me. The next thing I would need to budget for would be the most important part of the trip and that would be the museum itself. The admission price is free, but because of COVID, they have timed exhibitions admissions. You have to buy a ticket for that, and I believe it would cost about $6.97, but to see a certain exhibition, such as Yayoi Kusama’s mirrored room, another ticket for that would cost between $18.13 and $30.68. Each exhibition is different and ticket prices are also determined by the age of the person, like most things. At the museum they also have concessions and tickets for those would cost between $13.94 and $27.89.

Of course, while at the museum they will have a gift shop and I have to have something for memory, so for shopping in general I would budget roughly $120. That is not just for the gift shop, but other shops I see while in London. It is also budgeted for one of my extra stops I plan to visit. To be able to get from my hotel to the museum or from my hotel to my other stops, I would be using public transportation such as the buses. I know they have fares, so I would budget around $20 for bus fare. I think I could even walk to the museum because the distance is not far, but I would not want to get lost and look all confused. Now, while I am in London, even though the art museum is the main reason I would be going, I would also stop at two different places as well. I would like to visit The Natural History Museum and the Kew Gardens. The Natural History Museum actually isn’t too far from my hotel. So, I believe I would take a bus for that and I have the bus fare calculated in. Also, the Natural History Museum is actually free, which is very nice. However, I noticed at their gift shop they have stuffed dinosaurs, so I will of course have to buy one of those. That is budgeted in with the $120 for gift shops and just shopping around. For the Kew Gardens, they are a bit further from my hotel, it says it is recommended to take the Subway and the costs for that is roughly $5, which is also calculated in with my bus fare. It would then cost me roughly $20.91 to be admitted to the gardens. I want to go to these places because I absolutely love historical museums and botanical gardens. Overall, that is the budget for myself, I assume that would also be the same for somebody else trying to go on this trip. They could plan differently if they already have a passport and if they do not need as much caffeine as me. In total, for a normal person, this trip might just cost $3,000, which actually is not all that bad.

To anybody reading my blog, I wanted to share this letter that I sent to the curator at the Georgia Museum of Art. I wrote this letter because in my art class we have been discussing artists that are left out of the art world. We were told to pick an institute close to us and write them a letter on something their art institute could improve on. I chose the art museum in Georgia because as I mention in the letter, I was born there and hope to go back some day. I also chose it because this is a museum in the south where civil rights were born and slavery was a huge issue and looking at the museum, I think they should have more art that represents not only the history of the state, but the whole south. Currently, this museum does not do a good job at representing people of color or the history of the south, so I want something to be done.  I want everybody to be able to read this letter and see that they can do the same. If more than one person reaches out to places like these and state things that museums need to do better at representing, things might actually change. Look at everything in the world that has already changed because more than one person spoke up. I hope by reading this letter it inspires you to reach out and maybe make a change.

Hello!

My name is Ashley Duncan and I am writing to you on behalf of my modern art history class. Throughout the semester of this class we have been discussing the absence of certain artists in art history. Artists such as females or people of color. Specifically, why I am writing is because of an assignment we have to do. We had to choose an art institute close to us and find something they were missing/could improve upon. I chose the Georgia Museum of Art because I was actually born in Georgia and now currently live in Iowa.

As I examined your art institute online, I noticed something that was missing from a lot of the museum and that was people of color. Or more specifically, artists of color. It seems that a lot of the museum’s artwork comes from collections instead of exhibitions of certain artists. Collections are nice to have because then the museum can get an array of different artists, but they also give the majority of the credit to the person who donated the collection then. The artists a part of the collection doesn’t get as much credit or maybe they do. I am not really sure how most people view collections because we have mainly discussed exhibitions in my art class.

Anyways, the biggest factor that I wanted to bring to your attention and yours specifically, is the amount of African American art you have. On the museums website it says you are the African American exhibitions curator and I wanted to suggest some ideas for more African American art or artists displayed. I noticed between the years of 2014 and 2019 there were a few exhibitions for African American artists, such as Stoney the Road We Trod, Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête, and The Crossroads of Memory. Since then, it seems that these types of exhibitions have dwindled. It is understandable due to COVID, making everything more difficult and I know there is a new exhibition for Carrie Mae Weems coming up in 2022, but I wanted to offer some other artists that could be put in the museum.

First, I want to offer you this link, https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/black-history-month-10-artists-you-should-know/. It takes you to a page of ten different African American artists. The majority of them are alive, some of them are not. A few of these artists would be Jean-Michel Basquiat, he was a part of the Neo-Expressionism art movement and Contemporary art. He did a lot of graffiti styled art and even worked with Andy Warhol at one point. He did sadly pass away at the age of 27. Another artist is Kara Walker, age 51, and she is a part of the Contemporary art movement. Walker was born in Stockton, California and currently resides in Georgia, actually. Her father took a position at Georgia State University, which is different from the University of Georgia I believe. She earned her BFA at the Atlanta College of Art and her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Her artwork is based around a lot of the American civil war era and around slavery. A lot of her work is actually violent and unsettling black silhouettes cut out and put on a white wall; usually representing slavery and racism. Walked created these artworks because her time in school, she struggled with racism. People called her slurs and said she resembled certain animals.

Today, I know she has a few exhibits at the Tate Modern in London. I don’t know if you guys can contact that museum and see if she has any traveling exhibitions that you guys could rent? Another artist could be Lorna Simpson, age 60, and she is part of the Contemporary art movement as well. Her art is based around African American females’ identities and I think that could go well with a lot of the Black Lives Matter movements going on. Somebody else who could be a good representation for Black Lives Matter would be Glenn Ligon, age 61, who is also a Contemporary artist. His artwork is creating powerful messages through paintings about race and sexual identities.

There are a few photographers who you could possibly add as well. They would be Earlie Hudnall, age 75, and Roland L. Freeman, age 84. Earlie was a part of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil rights eras. While Freeman is a photographer of Southern Folk culture and African American quilters. Elizabeth Catlett is another artist who was a part of the Harlem Renaissance art movement. She passed away at the age of 97, living quite the life by sculpting and using graphic art to depict the life of African Americans. The last artist I saved that you could possibly add in would be Alma Thomas, passed away at the age of 86. She was a part of the Abstract Expressionism art movement and created most of her work in her eighties after she retired.

These are only a few suggestions I have. A lot of the artists I mentioned are females as well, which could also help the museum because not a lot of female artists are represented. According to Hyperallergic, the highest percent of female artists in museum is only 24% and I think your museum actually does a great job with representing women artists. I was surprised with the number of artworks that filled the museum were by women. Counting the artworks made by female artists out of the 20 exhibitions online on your website, 40% of artworks are made by female artists, but white female artists. Out of the 20 exhibitions there was 55% of artworks created by African American males. Counting the exhibitions, I found zero created by African American females. Which was actually really disappointing. I know there are two exhibitions coming up for African American females, but for the fact right now, that is sad. I just feel like more could be done to represent not only African Americans, but also African American women.

I want you to try and add more people of color to your museum because according to Hyperallergic again, 85% of works in museums are done by white artists and only 1.2% is done by African American artists. With our day and age and all the new artists we have, I want to see that changed.

To me, I am not a person of color, but seeing people of color represented means a lot to me. Especially in these times with Black Lives Matter and the voting issues Georgia is having, I feel like African American people need to be represented more than ever. They have always been pushed aside, look at the history of America, we are god awful at representing anybody who isn’t a white male. I do not know how much control you have over getting these artists, but I want your museum to be different than the others. I want it to stand out and show how much they want to stand out against from just representing white male artists from Europe. I wish you well and I hope my suggestions have offered you some ideas into new things you could try for the museum.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this. I hope none of it comes off as insensitive or anything. I just really care about art and I want to see a change in the world where everybody is represented and not just rich, white men. Again, thank you.

Endnotes

Bishara, Hakim. “Artists in 18 Major US Museums Are 85% White and 87% Male, Study Says.” Hyperallergic, 3 June 2019, hyperallergic.com/501999/artists-in-18-major-us-museums-are-85-white-and-87-male-study-says/.

Ellis, Nicquel Terry. “Art so White: Black Artists Want Representation (beyond Slavery) in the Met, National Gallery.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 8 May 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/05/black-artists-african-american-art-museums-galleries-collections-painting/3483422002/.

“Home.” Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, University of Georgia , 26 Apr. 2021, georgiamuseum.org/.

Jackson, Amari. “Approaching the Table: The Rich and Strange Plight of African American Representation within Major Museums.” BLACK ART IN AMERICA™, 27 Aug. 2020, www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2020/08/27/approaching-the-table-the-rich-and-strange-plight-of-african-american-representation-within-major-museums/.

Roussel, Marie-Caroline. “Black History Month: 10 Artists You Should Know.” Artsper Magazine, 21 Apr. 2020, blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/black-history-month-10-artists-you-should-know/.

Sam Phillips, …isms: Understanding Modern Art. (New York: Universe, 2013).

Art Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003).

Hello! I’m Ashley Duncan and welcome to my podcast, The Forgotten Women of Art History. The reason I am starting this podcast is for my Modern Art History class, but also because women are left out of everything. We talk so much in my art class about how women artists were pushed a side or men stole credit for their artwork, and I am tired of that. I am here to shed some light on women artists that were never given the spotlight because of their gender.

On today’s episode, I will be taking us on a trip to Russia during the Russian Revolution and the art movement of Suprematism. During this movement in Russia, there were about two notable female artists, but I will be only focusing on one, Olga Rozanova.

Olga Rozanova was born in 1886 in a Vladimir province, just east of Moscow, Russia. Her father was a district police officer and her mother was a daughter of an Orthodox priest. This gave her mother a higher education than most women of her generation.

Between the years of 1896 and 1904, Rozanova had the chance to study at the Vladimir Women’s Gymnasium. After her years there, little is known about her later education. A lot of sources say she studied at private schools in St. Petersburg. Some say she studied at Bolshatov Art College and then Stroganov School of Applied art, but no source can confirm. I guess that’s what happens to females throughout history. Facts about your education is lost because you were never supposed to have one.

Anyways… I wanted to discuss Olga Rozanova because of her influence on Suprematism. Suprematism is the art movement of colorful geometric shapes on plain backgrounds. It started in 1915 in St. Petersburg, Russia with Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square and the exhibition of 0,10: The Last Futurist Exhibition. As important as Malevich’s contribution is to the art movement, that is not why we are here today.

The point of these such simple figures on a canvas was because they could offer a person a ‘pure feeling.’ Or as it is said in our textbook, …isms: Understanding Modern Art, “the pictorial forms of Suprematism are entirely self-sufficient and independent of the real world.” Olga Rozanova agreed with this, even though it was a roughly coined idea by Kazimir Malevich. She also agreed with the idea that representation was the enemy of Suprematist artists. Which makes sense, seeing as they believed art was independent.

The only issue with Suprematism itself, is that it didn’t last long, much like many other art movements. By the year 1917, Suprematism was endorsed by the new regime of the Russian Revolution. Which was only a year before Rozanova passed away. She passed away in November of 1918. However, before she went, Olga Rozanova accomplished some pretty great things.

Before we get into Rozanova’s artwork, I wanted to discuss the reason I chose to talk about her today. I chose Olga Rozanova specifically because first off, she is a female artist and not a lot of them get talked about. Second off, she is from Russia, which is different from a lot of art movements, which basically all began in Paris, France. However, something that I really admire Rozanova for is the fact that she was a part of different fugitive avant-garde movements and groups pre-revolution Russia.

She was a part of the Union of Youth Group, the Jack of Diamonds, and the Left Federation of the Professional Union of Artist-Painters. In 1913, Rozanova was actually elected to be part of the executive board of the Union of Youth group and ended up writing their manifesto, “The Foundations of the New Art and Why it is not Understood.” I believe this is actually the manifesto discussed in our Art Theory textbook, but under a different title, “The Bases of the New Creation and the Reasons Why it is Misunderstood.” Rozanova not only wrote manifestos but she began sound poetry as well. Sound poetry is basically a combination of literary and musical composition, where the phonetic aspects of speech are in the foreground.

Rozanova learned about sound poetry from her future-husband Alexei Kruchenykh. Which then of course, led to their marriage and all of that fun stuff. However, in 1914, the fugitive avant-garde movements broke apart because of the beginning of the Russian Revolution. When that started, Rozanova began her journey of Suprematism and collage work.

For a while Rozanova dabbled in Suprematist art work and collage-based artwork. One of her most famous paintings is titled, Suprematism. It is a later piece of her artwork, created in 1916, a year after Suprematism supposedly started. I could not find the size of the art work, which can be common for forgotten artists, but it is oil on canvas and located at the Museum of Fine Arts in Russia.

This piece of artwork, of course, is seemingly a bunch of random rectangles with a bunch of vibrant colors. The colors she used in this painting are light yellow, dark yellow, which kind of looks orange at times, black, a dull red and then a brighter red, a dark blue, sometimes looking navy blue, and a light blue, with white, an olive green, hints of purple, and a little bit of brown. In the background of the painting, kind of diagonally from the left of the painting down, there are two very large rectangles. One on the left is that dark yellow/orange color and doesn’t have many shapes layered on top of it. While the rectangle on the right is the lighter yellow, with a lot more shapes on top of it. There are actually a bunch of smaller light red rectangles layered on top of the lighter yellow rectangle. They are also diagonal, but angle from the right side.

On the left large rectangle, there are three smaller rectangles that stair step their way down to the left of the painting. The first rectangle is a little lower than halfway down the big rectangle. The smaller one is black and to the left of it is a dark blue one, that is just a little shorter than it, creating that stair-step look. To continue the trend there is a purple rectangle that stair steps from the dark blue one to the left of it. To the bottom of the purple rectangle there is another dark blue rectangle that over laps it in a stair step manner, but this time it is going to the right of the painting.

Towards the very bottom of the painting and sort of near the left bottom corner, there is a perfect black square. Possibly a reference to Malevich’s black square painting. From the middle of the painting on the right side, there are three larger rectangles that overlap the bottom of the large light-yellow rectangle. They also create a stair-step pattern, also going towards the bottom left of the painting. It starts with a large bright red rectangle, then over lapping that is a large black rectangle, followed by an olive-green rectangle, which its bottom left corner is almost touching the bottom of the painting. There is quite a lot to describe in this painting because Rozanova’s art style is distinguished by the interaction of the colors and the vibrancy of them. Which makes sense why she has the difference of bright colors verses their darker shades.

Olga Rozanova was an inspiration for female artists of her time. Not only did she take part in fugitive avant-garde artists groups, but she also wrote manifestos, created Suprematist artwork and started the way for collage artwork. It is sad to say that she passed away at the young age of 32 and didn’t get the legacy she deserved. She worked right alongside Kazimir Malevich and even exhibited in the 0,10: The Last Futurist Exhibition with Malevich, yet she didn’t get the credit she deserved. Malevich did live 20 years longer than Rozanova, maybe that is why he got more recognition? Maybe not. We may never know, but at least you can carry with you the facts I have provided here today.

Take the knowledge of this female Russian artist and run with it. Don’t forget about her, as it happens with all other female artists. I have shared all I have learned from my Modern Art History class and I hope you learned something from it as well. I’m Ashley and thank you for listening to my podcast of The Forgotten Women of Art History.

End Notes

Berkowitz, Elizabeth. “Olga Rozanova Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” Edited by Greg Thomas, The Art Story, May 2018, www.theartstory.org/artist/rozanova-olga/.

Elsa Honig Fine, Women & Art: A History of Women Painters and Sculptors from the Renaissance to the 20^th Century. (Rowman & Allanheld Publishers, 1978), Page 168.

Sam Phillips, …isms: Understanding Modern Art. (New York: Universe, 2013), Pages 48-49.

Olga Rozanova, “The Bases of the New Creation and the Reasons Why it is Misunderstood,” in Art Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), Pages 205-208.

Sarabianov, A. D. “Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 4 Nov. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olga-Vladimirovna-Rozanova

There are many different art movements throughout the history of our world. Just alone we have discussed eight art movements in our college art history class. In my high school art classes, I was never really taught about art movements, but rather the artists themselves. That is why when we started discussing Pointillism in college art history, I connected it to high school because of specific artists we discussed. Although, I was taught almost absolutely nothing about Pointillism in itself, except how to recreate the art that other artists have made. In this content, it is important to notice and discuss the difference between how high school arts teach and how college arts teach art movements.

In high school, I was not taught Post-Impressionism, but I was taught Vincent Van Gogh, forms of Pointillism, and contemporary colors. I was never taught who the artists were that actually started the Post-Impressionism movement because Van Gogh actually did not do a lot with Pointillism. What I did in high school was an art style called stippling with pens. It is a form of Pointillism because we used small dots to create a piece of artwork. If we wanted an area very dark, we put lots of dots; if we wanted the area light, we spread all the dots out. By using pens though, you do not get the full effect of Pointillism that artists used from the 1880’s to 1910. Black and blue pens are not complementary colors, therefore, if a viewer were to look at my art created in high school, they would never associate it with Pointillism.

Pointillism is just a section that stems from Post-Impressionism, which started in France during the 1880’s. Other branches of Post-Impressionism were known as Neo-Impressionism, Divisionism, Symbolism, and Synthetism. When I was taught Pointillism in high school, I did not even know it branched from Post-Impressionism. I never even knew what Post-Impressionism was until we started discussing it in my Modern Art History class. The founders of Post-Impressionism were Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Paul Cézanne, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Seurat and Signac were the two most notable artists for Pointillism in Post-Impressionism because they focused a lot on contemporary colors. When Seurat passed away, if it had not been for Signac, Pointillism would have never continued its life. To describe Pointillism, it is the use of contemporary colors in dot form to make one color stand out more than the other. So, when the viewer is looking at the artwork from a distance, they make one solid color. Whereas if the viewer looks as the artwork up close, they can see the separation of the two complementary colors. An example of this would be Georges Seurat’s painting of Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. As the viewer can see, it may look like everything is smoothly painted or slightly blurry, but that is what the dots and color do. The grass may seem green, but if the viewer were to be up close to the painting, they will see there is red mixed with green dots. The red complements the green, therefore making the green stand out. The viewer may also notice that the edges of the painting are painted instead of using dots and that’s because a lot of artists painted the borders. They just wanted to have that solid border before starting the rest of the painting with Pointillism.

Another painting of Georges Seurat would be Farm Women at Work, actually painted before Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. These two paintings were only created a year apart and yet, the viewer can see quite a difference between the Pointillism styles. From a distance, Farm Women at Work looks slightly blurry, but a viewer can still see the defining brush strokes in the painting. This is different from Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte because it is not complementary dots. The paining does hold complementary colors, but they are in rough brush strokes that give the painting a fuzzy look from far away. When the viewer is up close, they will notice that defining feature of the colors and brush strokes; the separation of the colors, from which they could not notice far away. In the article, “Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism,” Paul Signac says that “By the blending of these pure colors, and by varying their proportions, they obtained an infinite quantity of colors, from the most intense to the most grey.” To be an artist apart of Pointillism, it does not matter the form it takes, but the sorts of colors and how it is applied to the canvas. This can also be seen in one of Van Gogh’s paintings, Self-Portrait, created in 1887t. If looking closely, there are a lot of different sizes of dots and even more so on the face, there are a lot of brush strokes. Not only does he use dots and brush strokes but uses complementary colors to make certain aspects stand out. Looking at the background in his painting, the viewer can see an array of orange, blue, and green dots. The blues make the oranges stand out, but they also go along with Van Gogh’s orange beard. A viewer can also notice the right half of the background is darker and there are more dots, as they are smaller. Van Gogh took in a lot of concepts to make this painting, using different techniques, but still making it a Pointillism painting. Whether it is complementary colors in dots or complementary colors in rough brush strokes; as long as there is that defining separation of colors up close, it is Pointillism. The complementary colors are what make the painting whole because they offer more to it.

After going over Post-Impressionism and learning all these new things, I really reflected on what I learned from high school. It sometimes makes me feel ashamed that schools do not teach these things more often and earlier in students’ lives. How can a person paint something without knowing what they are really painting? Vincent Van Gogh did not have a lot to do with Pointillism, he was towards the end of it, but why was I only taught about him? Why was I not taught about Georges Seurat or Paul Signac, when they both started Pointillism? It is like having somebody recreate a piece of technology, without telling them who first invented it. A person does not need to know all the facts behind a painting, but they at least need to know why a certain style was used. I never learned in high school that artists used complementary colors in their paintings to make one color stand out over the other. Learning about Post-Impressionism and Pointillism in my Modern Art class actually broke down why those colors were used. A person does not need to know all the background information to be able to paint, but they do need a little knowledge on the art movement to have an understanding of the colors and styles.

As noted through this paper, it is seen that to be able to understand an art movement and to let it have a lasting impression on a viewer, it needs to be discussed in depth. The importance of art is something people can connect to throughout their daily lives, especially with Pointillism. We see complementary colors everywhere we look, because they make each other stand out and make it more noticeable to people. Art surrounds us and we cannot notice or understand it by just discussing important artists and recreating their art.

Endnotes

Pierre Courthion. “Georges Seurat.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 30 Dec. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Seurat.

Adam Jolles & Britt Slavesen, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), Pages 98, 122-123.

Sam Phillips, …isms: Understanding Modern Art. (New York: Universe, 2013), Pages 16-17.

Paul Signac, “Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism,” in Art Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), Pages 15-18.

Sotheby’s. “Pointillism: 7 Things You Need to Know.” Sothebys.com. 13 July 2018, www.sothebys.com/en/articles/pointillism-7-things-you-need-to-know.

David Weeks, et al. “How the Pioneers of Pointillism Continue to Influence Artists Today.” My Modern Met. 18 Jan. 2018, mymodernmet.com/pointillism-art-georges-seurat/.

A Foreign Friend

On the island of Câmara De Lobos, Madeira, a tall, skinny weeaboo, or weeb for short, grew up. Weeb is a common term used by the youth of today meaning a person with an obsession for Japanese culture, mostly anime.  The weeb in question is Filipe Henriques; a 21-year-old Portuguese university student, who spends the majority of his free time watching anime. Even though he is considered a weeb, he says, “I’m not exactly obsessed, but it’s for sure not a healthy relationship.”

Henriques spends his free time watching anime because he doesn’t get much free time to do anything else. During the week he spends all day in class from 8 am to 6 pm at the University of Porto in the faculty of sciences department. Homework can consume him because he is working towards his masters in appliances of bio technology and synthetic biology. He already has his bachelors in bio chemistry, which took four years; now he has another few more years to go.

“Bio technology is the future. I also don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life. So, I am here, trying to still have a future but trying not to be too specific in something.” Henriques says as he details why he chose this field of study. It is a difficult study and brings about a lot of work and research, but as he says, “[It’s] something I still have quite a lot of interest in.” It doesn’t bore him; therefore, his interest pushes him to continue.

This field of study could lead him to produce vaccines for diseases of the world. He said that his colleagues and him had already discussed the vaccine that is being created for COVID-19. Although, he hasn’t made it that far in his studies and for now he will work on creating vitamin supplements.

For somebody to pursue this field of study, they have to relatively be smart because they would be considered a scientist. As Henriques’ boyfriend, Pedro Pereira says, “He’s more clever than he gives himself credit.” Pereira also describes Henriques as “smart and funny” hinting at that Henriques knows what he is doing, even though he can stress out and procrastinate a lot.

As much as Henriques loves his studies and anime, he also enjoys spending time with his boyfriend or just talking to him. COVID-19 makes it harder for each other to see one another. Pereira mentioned that he lives roughly 62 miles away from Henriques university and with COVID-19, they have travel bans. People are only allowed to travel so far before police stop them. It is hard for the two to get together, but who knows, maybe one day Filipe Henriques will get to say that he had part in the COVID-19 vaccine, so he could go visit his boyfriend.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-explains-decision-flood-poor-indigenous-areas-74233677?cid=clicksource_4380645_1_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

The article I chose for this week is, “Mexico explains decision to flood poor, Indigenous areas” written by the Associated Press. In the article it discusses how the president of Mexico had to make the decision of letting a city with 350,000 people be flooded or poor areas of 83,000 people be flooded. The city was also home to the president and after days of heavy rain fall, their dam had reached its capacity. They had to let some water out and either into the city or divert it to flood the poor, indigenous areas.

I chose this article for class because this faces both an ethical and moral issue. The president obviously didn’t want to flood the smaller areas of indigenous people, but he didn’t want the bigger city flooded either. However, he says he cares about the poor people, but he had to make the tough decision to flood their homes to save the big city, a city he grew up in. I think that is where I find the issue. There were probably many other options than actually flooding towns/cities. The big issue can be seen as, he grew up in that city, it means a lot to him, he doesn’t want to harm it. The other issue, the areas he flooded, poor and indigenous people. Native people that he decided didn’t mean as much as the people in the city. Especially after they flood those areas, how are the poor supposed to rebuild? They are poor. Is the president going to help give them aid? I wasn’t a fan of this story, it bothered me, but I get he had to make a tough decision to affect more or less people. It’s hard to be a person in power sometimes and its hard for people to see the decisions they have to make.

Chloe Pieper believes that she is a very quiet person. Although, some people might disagree with that, Chloe describes herself as, “An extroverted quiet person.” When she is comfortable around people, she let’s her true self out, but she still thinks before she speaks.

It takes her a moment to process what she wants to say because it is part of the organized person she is. She has to mentally prepare for what is going to be said, before actually saying it. It is like writing a speech, just less formal.

Another reason Chloe says she is quiet is because of her mysterious past trauma. Everybody holds some kind of trauma, but Chloe’s reverts back to her youth when she had less confidence. Her confidence levels then and now, still are the reasons as to why she waits to speak.

There always seems to be the issue of siblings when a person determines a quality about themselves. Chloe says she is also quiet because she is the first born child. She always “had to listen more than talk” because her other siblings would get the spot light. Younger siblings do take over a lot because the first born is almost always like another parent in the family.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gun-waving-st-louis-couple-sues-news-photographer-74081865?cid=clicksource_4380645_9_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

The article I chose this week is “Gun-waving St. Louis couple sues news photographer” written by The Associated Press. In this article it talks about how protesters for racial injustice protested down a private street. Along that street was a couple and their $1.5 million house. The couple came out waving guns around and from the street, a photographer took a picture of them. They are now suing the photographer because they are stating since the street was private, the photographer and protesters were trespassing.

I chose this article because I just thought it was interesting in general. Why was it the couples solution to go out waving guns at people that were just walking down a street protesting? The couples were lawyers too, shouldn’t they know better? I also want to know if the street is publicly know that it is private. Is it a gated community? How do people know it is private? I have too many questions for this article and that is why I don’t think it did that great of a job. It was short, but just not enough information was provided for me to come to a conclusion on if the people were dumb or not. The couple could also be considered racists since they came out with guns to protect their $1.5 million house.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/humans-contributed-extinction-dodo-bird-giant-tortoise-madagascar/story?id=73564865&cid=clicksource_4380645_18_big_feature_bf_image

Tortoise and Dodo

The islands of Madagascar and Mascarene are home to many mega fauna. A word not often used but referring to the animals that weigh 22 pounds or more. These islands are extremely biodiverse. However, because of human existence, they have lost a majority of their native species.

According to Julia Jacobo, a reporter for ABC News, there has been new research on the two islands. Researchers have studied about, “8,000 years of climate data from cave mineral deposits,” Jacobo said in her article. With the use of these deposits it shows that climate change alone did not cause extinction. Marissa Hernandez, a student at Morningside, commented, “Both the giant tortoise and the dodo bird were likely driven to extinction from human interruption.”

These species thrived before humans arrived at the islands because there was nothing to upset the balance of flora and fauna. The use of this study is proving that humans and climate change are killing off the native features of earth. Now, two of these three species are extinct.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/record-snow-hits-upper-midwest-red-flag-warnings/story?id=73732357&cid=clicksource_4380645_5_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

Snowstorm to Red flag Warnings

On October 21^st, many midwestern states saw an average of three to ten inches of snow. The amount of snow has made it record high in some states.

The month of October is typical for snow, but never this much before Halloween. In Wisconsin they received 6.9 inches of snow. While in Minnesota they received 7.9 inches. Some areas became so slippery from snow and ice, that planes skidded off runways.

While the Midwest was being coated in snow, the west is still burning up. Fires continue to rage in California and Colorado. Iggy, a student who is attending Morningside, but is from California said, “Sometimes we are even told not to let our kids out or our animals out because the air, it’s way too dry.” As wind gusts pick up, making the air dryer and they create red flag warnings for these states.

Wind gusts as high as forty to fifty miles per hour are believed to sweep through the states. Not just California and Colorado, but through Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico as well. Each state is either under a wind advisory or a critical fire advisory.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/growing-nkorean-nuclear-threat-awaits-us-election-winner-73729250?cid=clicksource_4380645_10_heads_posts_headlines_hed

US Elections cause for Nuclear War?

The two presidential candidates continue to campaign but have not brought up the issue of North Korea. As last the public knew, president Trump was working on an agreement with North Korea to denuclearize the country.

Arms experts in Washington say that the leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Un, has created a new missiles weapon. With the possibility of firing multiple nuclear war heads at any country, at once.

According to Deb Riechmann, a reporter for ABC News, North Korea is known to fire off missiles before elections in the US and South Korea. North Korea calls these “test” fires, as they have no set location to hit.

As president Trump says, “All I know is we’re not in war and that’s OK.” He has not seemed to make any other agreements since the last time he met with Kim Jung Un. Joe Biden mentions he will not sit down with Kim Jung Un until an agreement is reached. Garrett Arbuckle, a political science major here at Morningside agrees with Biden’s method, “[Joe Biden] mentioned in the debates he kind of has no intention of meeting with certain leaders unless there is a reason to.” The fear that something will happen in the beginning of the new year lingers within the US government.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-trapped-turkey-earthquake-rubble-65-hours-rescued/story?id=73981959&cid=clicksource_4380645_5_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

The article I chose for this week is, “Little girl trapped under Turkey earthquake rubble for 65 hours rescued” written by Haley Yamada. In the article it talks about 7.0 earthquake that struck Turkey killing nearly 90 people and injuring over 1,000. The article also talks about a 3-year-old who was stuck under an apartment for 65 hours that had collapsed and she had almost no injuries. It discusses a 70-year-old man being rescued and a 14-year-old who was rescued after being trapped for 58 hours. These three and among many more are in the process of being saved.

I chose this article because it relates to our class in quite a few ways. This first way it relates is a I believe that this is a spot feature story. The main focus is about the earthquake, but then within the article there are small paragraphs about trapped victims. Another way this relates to the class is how it is written. The written lead sounds like it should be used more for broadcast, just because it doesn’t give away much information. Within the second paragraph it tells me where the earthquake was, but it doesn’t give me much information on it until one of the last few paragraphs. Overall, it was a decent article because this wasn’t breaking news right away, but it doesn’t give necessary information right away.