Phoebe+Bejarano

Name: Phoebe Bejarano, Sophomore class of 2017. I have taken Painting: visual thinking and drawing 1 so far at GWU, I was also an art major in high school during my senior year and had many works of art displayed in the art show as well as published in magazines for my school and town. I plan on taking many art history classes as well as all the fine art classes i can in order to become a fine arts major.

Pa per on famous sculptor

Phoebe Bejarano David Miller paper Sculpture 1

American abstract expressionist sculptor and painter David Smith, who passed away in 1965, is best known for his extremely large steel abstract geometric sculptures. Early works of his during the great depression with famous artists such as Stuart Davis, and Willem de Kooning, and his studying of the welded sculptures of Julio Gonzalez and Picasso, led Smith to direct his skills towards combining painting and construction. His first pieces progressed as he began to use three-dimensional objects such as wood, coral, wire, metal, and other able to weld materials. As smith gained success and appraisal he began to complete works done in series. The series he is best known for is the Cubis. These works were constructed of stainless steel fragments, hand-brushed with gestural strokes. The Cubi works consisted of an arrangement of geometric shapes, highlighting the elements of balance and positive and negative space. The Cubi collection has a industrial feel with the shine of the silver metal, it makes the eye dance from corner to corner, keeping the viewer interested.

Other works Smith is known for have been referred to as “drawings in space”, which seem to blur the lines between whether it is a painting or a sculpture. These pieces use space as an element to convey the message of the structure, it contains a two-dimensional appearance, portrays a image, but the lines or brushstrokes of the piece are formed with three-dimensional materials. This collaboration of his painting skills and sculpting abilities create extremely unique and interesting displays. If the viewer would be looking at it face on, the materials in the work, and the background or landscape, would create an image through positive and negative space. As the viewer shifted left and right the image would change, perhaps the color originally in the top corner, would dominate the center now, and ever the textures showing through the negative spaces would vary with the viewer. Continuing to observe the piece the viewer might start to walk around the work, evolving the piece from a two-dimensional image into a sculpture. The sculptures size would vary as well, looking at it form the side it might look like just a single line, with many others hiding, extremely different from the wide and busy view from the front of the sculptor.

Some of the serra verbs that would apply to David Smith’s art, specifically the “drawings in space” pieces would be to curve, to arrange, to open, and of location. These refer to the actual placement of the materials, the special elements, and the ability of the viewer to manipulate their viewing by moving around the art. The principle of contrast is also seen in these works, the contrast between the rough materials and the endless possibilities of elements that would make up the framed negative spaces. Another principle is pattern; Smith uses repetitive lines and curves to create images in the air.

Changed view after museum

Phoebe Bejarano Sculpture

After studying and learning the art form of sculpture over the last few months, my perceptive and method of viewing art as a whole has changed drastically. The first element I begin to analyze while looking at a piece is its proportion as well as its scale. I take note and compare each of the individual pieces within the artwork, how do they compliment each other, how does their relative size effect the other elements. Next I will look at the color of the piece, as well as the texture, I will think about what the artist is trying to convey through their color use. If it is one uniformed color, or extremely subtle earth color, this will have a different message than one that is wildly colorful, with patterns or abstract designs.

The next analysis is by far the most interesting to me, and the one that has grown so much from being in a sculpture class. Strictly using vision and observing I will attempt to figure out the artist’s process of transforming the materials, as well as what the materials actually are. Understanding the raw materials can be a struggle in itself due to the extreme manipulation or uniqueness of the resources. I try to look at the piece and translate it backward to understand its original shape. For example if a stone sculpture has a smooth manipulated curve I will try to picture the original rock and how much has been extracted in order to leave a curve. Another aspect I think about while exploring a piece is the tools the artist used, I think about this more especially after working in the woodshop and learning the vase number of operations one power tool can preform. During this exploring it can be observed that they might have used a unconventional method of transformation, not tools, perhaps a process that takes time and is manipulated due to what the material is, example ripening.

Overall my viewing process has changed substantially, I now look at the work from the artist’s point of view, their thinking process about manipulation ideas, as well as what mood, emotion, or message they are trying to convey through their choices.