POST #10

Artist= Zhang Hongtu

Pingling, China, born 1943

"A walking man" 1984

Acrylic on canvas

On December 9th, for the final blog post I visited Queens Museum. I picked this work of art "A walking man"(1984) by Chinese artist name Zhang Hongtun. I found this work of art very unique because of the color that he used because it's neither primary nor secondary. The medium of this work of art is acrylic paint and canvas. Since, it is acrylic on canvas it lies in 2d category. It is very hard to see what is in the painting due to the very dark colors. Hongtun has used so thick layers of paint, so the texture of painting is not a plane as most 2D work of arts has. In the far background, there is a tree, in the left middle ground, there is fish taking out his the head from the water and looking at the back of the man, and in the foreground there a man walking, facing in front. He tried to capture the very dark and depressing feeling in this painting. This is a representational work of art to me because, he tried to depict himself in the painting. And according to the content, the painter being from China felt very weird from all the cultural shock and found himself in a very weird environment when he came to America and was an inspiration for him to paint this particular piece. As the topic suggests walking man and fish he must have felt as if he was the only human and couldn't really communicate with others or feel comfortable speaking, even when they are, He used only cold and thick layers of dark colors hinting that it was very hard, lonely, having a hard time blending in the society and sad being in this sort of environment away from his home, friends and family. Finally, I guess he made this work of art, to convey his feelings and emotion while living in a different place and also it is kinda related to me. therefore, I chose this work.

After taking this class visiting the Queens museum was very interesting and knowledgeable to me because due to this class I started looking at artwork in a different way, for example, what is the artist trying to convey or appeal a message, feeling and emotion to us. Most importantly, I learned that art is life because we are surrounded by art and it is everywhere.

Post # 7/8

Superheroes

Not to be confused with the Superheroes

Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spider-man and Thor 

They Banning a War and creating peaceful world

When the peaceful home comes under attack from a familiar threat,

Villains such as Ra's al Ghul, Bin Laden, and NazisHitler spread propaganda for war in The Galaxy 

Check out all the Superheroes coming out to stave off war and bring peace back to the alleys.

the struggle of superheroes on a mission of peace

The war is over and time has come to live free and in peace and equality.

Next, I translated into several languages such as English, Arabic, Chinese, Nepali, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, French, Spanish and back to English.

Confuse

So do not be confused for the same hole

Superman, Batman, Captain America, saw a spider -man

War is to create a world of peace and we are prohibited

And if the family is a violation of the silent threat

Global public relations, Osama bin Laden, and we have to be able to see, such as the fight for the atrocities of the Nazi radio galaxies Hitler cave

On the road, and you will have all the heroes of peace, it must stop the war.

Champion task, now the war and peace, freedom and equality has come, and the time to live

Creative Project #1

        For this creative project, I decided to draw to represent myself. Since, I am a student I chose pencil to represent myself. Pencil helps me to write/draw my thoughts and  express my feelings. Same as, I chose earphone because I love to listen to music because it helps me to feel calm and relax. The artistic decision that I chose to make, a broken pencil and heavily tangled earphone.The reason I chose a broken pencil because I think it represents me as a person who is not good at writing. In addition, I chose heavily tangled earphone because it represents my feelings and emotion about how difficulties, confusion, and pressure that I am having when I am weak in English.  I want viewers to see that what situation that I am going through. It's been always hard for me to settle down in new places because everything changes such as culture, community, friends, and lifestyle etc.. I think this is not only my problem, I guess every international student has the same problem as mine. However, Some international students who are lucky enough to receive a good quality of education back in their country, they don't have to face difficulties same as the student who did not get a good education. Therefore, while I was making this drawing I felt so vulnerable to people who are new to this country.There are some people out there, who rush to snap judgment on people based on their color, religion, appearance, skills, and culture etc. It relates to Stuart Hall's idea, that how people stereotype of people based on where they are  from.

Essay #2

Dear Rodriguez,

      Last Wednesday from our Art and society class I visited "El Museo del Barrio museum". I got a chance to see your incredible works of arts in the museum. I like yours all work of arts and  it is very unique. One particular work of arts that I like the most was "Cruz de Loisaida". It grabbed my attention  due to colors, technique and the message it gives.

At first, when I look at your work of arts  I did not get the theme of acrollage then after I read the content, it blew me away. Therefore, I have some question to learn more about your acrollage. I see a person with the long neck with a silver color on the cross. His/ her body has an abstract rectangular shape and S/he is injecting a drug. The red splatters of paint remind me of blood. In the middle of the canvas, I see a logo or a stamp which I'm not sure about it and it made me wonder what is that mean and what is that represented in this work of arts? In my opinion  your idea of keeping the identity unclear which refers crucifixion could happen to anyone. And the question is why did you depict the person with drugs? This work of art relates to the religion. On the other hand, it was showing the image of hand injecting a drug. Thus, it made me curious to know what was the reason behind putting together drug and crucified sign? Does it represent something else? Because nowadays  people believe more in science than the God.  The title of your work of arts is "Cruz de Loisaida" which means "Cross of Loisaida" and Loisaida is the term for the lower East side of New York, a mainly Puerto Rican and Dominican area. A drug is the most dangerous thing in the world, kills human and it is the worst thing to do in life. Regarding your opinion, why did you choose the title "Cruz de Loisaida" aren't people around the world also suffering from the drug addiction and aren't they also in a drug war?

It was honored to see your solo work of art exhibition and they are really amazing and have a unique style. I like the way you convey the positive messages to the people about the drug. At last, I apologize for any miss interpret or personal questions.Thank you for the time.

                                                                                                                           sincerely
                                                                                                                         Lakpa Tamang

post #5/6

Wall  Label
Title- Karuwa(watering can) and Bowls
Artist- Unknown
Date- watering can (c. 1900) and Bowl (c. 1998)
Medium- Brass/Copper and silver metal



I decided to choose this watering can and bowls for my assignment. My parents brought these bowls and watering can from Nepal before come to the New York. Watering can and bowls are related to religion. This watering can use specifically for offering water to Buddha. It is the most common type of offering on Buddhist shrines are water offering - call "Yonchap" in Tibetan. We  offer water to God always in the morning time and there are seven bowls where we pour water from the watering can one by one. And We remove the bows at the end of the of the each day, at any time before the sunset.The reason I choose this object because I have learned something  practicing Buddhism and I feel like to share a little bit to others. The main point of any offering pure motivation to cultivate generosity, and to reduce our selfishness and greed. In addition, we seek to give with an open, pure heart, with no attachment to what we are giving, and no expectation of receiving something in return. Therefore, the idea is that all of our offerings should be given freely as we would give water. However, Many Buddhist people have forgotten the purpose of offering nowadays.

In John Cotton Dana's The Gloom of the Museum he says " they become lost in their idea of a museum and forget its purpose" in other words rich people are choosing what to put in a museum because of their one piece, expensive valuable and history and they don't think the same about other class people to display in a museum something to give importance to them or their ancestor. Likewise, this Watering can and bowls holds a meaning and teach us to be a great full and generous person. However, some people are the meaning and the purpose of it. 

Essay# 1

Trip to Met museum was fun because it was my first time visiting at museum in my life. I had a chance to see many incredible works of art, out of them I chose these two particular works of art for my assignment. These sculpture are from the different era and places. Gaston Lachaise(1882-1935) Standing Women,  1915. Cast 1930. I think this sculpture is representational and realistic because the artist tries to carve statue realistically. Her body texture is made out of from metal(bronze)According  to the label, Lachaise was woking in Paris in 1903 when he met muse Isabel Dutaud Nagle ( standing lady). Who he later married in 1917. this shows that the artist was really into this work of art later on he fell in love with her. This reminds me the story of Pygmalion's sculpture, where he fell in love with the sculpture that he made it with his own hand and married later with the ivory statue.  According to the label, this sculpture created a powerful archetype of womanhood, in other words standing woman represent as a fertility goddess. Her body's shape is in an organic shape.

 This sculpture is said to be from Attica, Greek. 590-880 B.C .Statue of a kouros (youth). This sculpture  was a fund to Met museum in 1932, from Fletcher fund. This known as one the earliest work of art statues of human figure carved in Attica. This sculpture has a collaboration of style from different culture and place. According to the label, "with  the left leg forward and the arms at side, was derived from Egyptian art". This sculpture is made from a marble with a repeated lines patterns with objective details of human body. This sculpture is also a representational to me because the artist carved this statue in a realistic way even though the size is gigantic.

      Comparing and contrasting these two work of art. they have both have may similarities and differences. Both of these work of art is from different eras and The Standing lady(1915)  is made out from metal and the statue of a kouros(580 B.C) is made out from marble. There are gender differents too male and female. The standing lady is a woman and the statue of kouros is a man. Even though, they are from different generation both of them are lies in representational work of art. The both sculptures have an actual texture although, they both made from different materials. The reason I chose these 3D work of art because of the time period differentiate therefore, I thought it would be easier to compare and contrast. And also  these work of art shows that people been creating a sculpture to represent what they believe in and it also shows the artists were very creative.

BP#4

I found this picture in online. This is a huge statue of Lord Ganesh. In south Asia, people worship him as a God. He is the most worshipped deities in the Hindu religion. He is the son of "Destroyer" Lord Shiva. He is different from any other gods in the Hindu religion because he had an elephant head. At the very little age, he had killed may devils and had saved the earth from the devil, therefore, People celebrate an annual festival honors Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September.The festival begins with people bringing in the statue, photo, clay idols of Ganesh. On the very last day of the festival, Ganesha statue immersed in the water. I believe this is idealistic because no one knows how does he really look like and no humans can have an elephant's head with on body. The statue of Ganesh is representational to me because the artist had tried to make Ganesh like a real person even though he is a God therefore, I would say this is realistic because The statue has clothes, hands, feet everything that makes actual reference to humans.  "The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget" said John Berger. This means people believes in what they see and what they hear. Even though It could be totally lies or facts.

BP#3

I was walking home after a stressful day at work that day  in order to put my mind at ease and was planning to watch some graffiti for my homework later.I remembered that there were bunch of graffiti around the blocks near my home and decided to check some of them , there were mostly words written on the wall, but there was one graffiti that instantly grabbed my attention . It was a laughing Buddha wearing accessories as rap stars but still had the aspects of Buddha himself. It was colored in black, red and white, black outlines and filled with white. It has both an organic and geometric shapes to me because Buddha was in triangle shapes and words in the background are in organic forms. The technique that the artist used was a graffiti, therefore, it lies in a 2D art. This got me thinking Buddha was a preacher and rappers preach too but in their own way they not just singing they sing their story or talk about others in their song its the same as preaching and thought they were kinda alike or not at the same time. Actually, in China Laughing Buddha known as a goddess of  money. People worship him to succeed in the businesses and for prosperity.   I do not know the name of the artist who made this but there was written billy on the leg of the graffiti so I would like to thank Billy for making me forget about my stressful day at work and for helping me out with my homework assignment . Thank you, Billy.

BP#2

 I'm choosing This unique art which is done by famous artist name "Pablo Picasso" during World war II (1942). I found this art very interesting because it made me thought and confused. I thought it's a real skull's of an animal  after researched and I discovered that  this sculpture was made from only two elements.
               It's a shape of "Bull's Head" and it's made out from just two objects which are bicycle's handlebars and seat, therefore, it lies in a 3D art. The light hit directly to the skull and it stands out more realistic and the colors of sculpture look brown and gray. Since this skull is made of plastic and metal the texture looks solid. During the world war, many millions of people were killed.  This art played a vital role at war time  because this art showed the transforming power of the human imagination at the time when human values were under siege. Thus, this bull's skull represents "Death Head". In my opinion, the artist simply did the unique art. To be honest, it's beyond my imagination, where he just used two pieces object to message the world about the effects of war I guess. I think he chose the brown and gray color because it represents decayed or rotten things and obviously the skull states death.

Post #1

Growing  up in the Buddhist family Buddha's painting, sculpture, etc. Can see day to day life. This painting name called "Thangka". We can find this kind of painting at Buddhist monasteries, museums and houses. I believe people been painting this kind of paint since 11th century. People used to paint this kind of painting on wall, paper, canvases and cloth. According to the viewer views it looks like a huge monster with six faces, legs, arms holding various weapons. but actually it's the painting of goddess name "Vajrabhairav". The size of this painting is about 15"×19". Usually Thangka artist tries to illustrate the life of Buddha, various influential monks and other Goddess. As I know about this painting symbolized the pure enlightenment. The purpose of this Thangka is for devotional as well as for home decoration.

Introduction

   My name is Lakpa Tamang and I'm from Nepal. I have been here in New York for two years before moving in here I was in India, Sikkim with my grandparents. I can speak six different languages, including English. Before the college started I had very long hair. I like to play a video game and compose a music which mostly I do when I have a free time. My favorite foods are Mo: Mo (dumpling), sushi, fries and especially all spicy foods.