Monthly Archives: October 2015

Pantone- Make It Brilliant

The campaign of Pantone “Make it Brilliant” central with this metaphor with dancers and lights expressing the idea of dancers being re-flexible and movement between an artist or designer on their ideas and lights as the uses of light and shadows between color. I think the message was very effective with the lights and dancers interaction with their surroundings and objects because they both convey the concept of unity in design. The thing learn from the article is trial and error were part of the  photo shoot because just how the expression between light and shadow  interacted with the dancers show how many different the shot could have been different. The thing surprise me the most is how the lighting and color are interacting.

Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire

A scientist holds a genetically modified vegetable

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World by Micheal Pollan about the potatoes that get pick up and deliver to the supermarkets are getting toxins in them to keep out insects but becomes harmful for consumers that buy them and eat it.  These company are just protecting their own interest and make a profit while putting people in danger.

Vanitas

I have to say while really observing Rachel Ruysch Fruits and Insects I was reminded of many things one of them has to be the cycle of life. I love how she uses color and textures to show life and death in the flowers and fruit. Including insects really brought the paintings to life by showing movement and how their drawn to the fruits and dark shadows cast by fruits and flowers’. I really enjoy how Ruysch shows both life and death, by adding fresh ripped fruit vibrant colors and new life such as the eggs and small butterflies she shows the beginning of life as well as life as its peek I say that because the fruit is just right one more week and it will end up like the dead flowers. The way she displays death is very beautiful and sudden she used earth tones and soft strokes to paint the dead flowers to cast dark areas the style reminds me of romanticism using neoclassical colors .

Rene Membreno-Canales art I must say is very heavy handed and in your face. I never got the feeling that he was glorifying the food and showing life and death Canales wants to discus war and make you uncomfortable at the dinner table. I almost get the feeling of like how dare you be enjoying this wine and cheese while people are dying .the use of weapons of mass destruction shows that this is in no way suddel he wasn’t to make were aware of the hell hole he has gone through and it almost show to me that he used religion to get by with the use of wine, grapes, bread and brass cups in some of his pieces.

Vanitas

The Dutch painting of 17th and 18th Century is a type of still life painting that consists of inanimate objects which conveys a meaningful message.  This type of painting creates a metaphor for mortality as the artist uses collection of symbolic objects to convey a biblical or christian message that can translate to death, wealth, and life.  For example, in Rachel Ruysch Painting Fruit and Insects, she did not just captured a natural scene but also studied them in great detail, both the fruits and insects which she combined together to form  a beautiful composition. In her painting, she symbolizes the wheat and the grapes to eucharist. And relates to her father’s work by placing lived insects and animals in her composition.

Hector Rene Membreno-Canales uses the Dutch still life painting technique because he wanted this type of style to convey his experience in the military. I think his work is effective since by placing military objects, food, and a veteran in his photo, he creates a personal feeling, and indicates that war is about survival and hardship. Since he symbolizes the food as his hardship, both the weapons, and the veteran can signify that will fight through his harship in order to live.

Dutch Still Life Painting

Dutch still life painting shows a meaning of life with animals or plants or the state it is currently in. Most paintings show a dead animal or dead plant next to a live organism. For example, in Rachel Ruysch painting Fruit and Insects, 1711, there are lively pants and animals and there’s a few dead leaves behind the grapes. The eggs at the bottom depicts life and the slowly dead leaves represents death.

He wants to show it because it shows life and death. In his first photo, he is shown and a table full of grapes, a tusk, a wine cup and strawberries. The tusk represents death and a bowl of grapes and strawberries depicts life.

Vanitas

To me the  Dutch 17th and 18th Century still life painting had a lot of color harmonies. i believe that this is key and also having something that shows birth and the process of death in some sort of way.  This painting shown to us, give us a clear message that was created to be mortality, because in this painting we saw a bunch of things, such as the baby seeming it was running away, we saw a birds nest and eggs on it and we saw insects a butterfly and flowers on the photo of Jan van Huysum that might represent not only the good but also that at one point they died out, that flowers and all these beautiful fruits and vegetables aren’t going to last forever .

Hector Rene Membreno-Canales uses  the style of Dutch still life painting and the idea of Vanitas in his series Hegemony or Survival, because he puts elements that describe what he has  went threw and the items such as the ticking bomb, the gas masks shows how he survived a hard time and also he’s color choose, were all very unsaturated and he’s back drops were all black  giving it a feel and focus on the items on the table. I say that the style he has used is very effective as mortality. The reason for this, is because he’s images were surrounded with not only violent items but with the color and how its focus on its theme .

Life and mortality

The painting creates a metaphor by using metaphorical objects that was easily translated by the audience in which she painted for. In the pieces displayed, the background are often very vague, and not important. They all have very concentrated palettes.

Hector uses the style by adding his own twist with it. Since his story was very similar to the style it was a very was adaption of the two. The work made by hector does have some links to the style in a very modern day relation and he uses the style correctly. For the image about “the creation” i believe that the photo was not heavy handed, but very slick in its execution.

Dutch still life

Venitas was a life style painting in the 17th and 18th century. The style consisted of many metaphors and meaningful messages behind them. Creating a full art with so much detail capture the attention of the public as to why every decision was made. From small details on the flower texture to water drops that capture the eye.

Hector Rene uses this style in many different ways. To create a difference contrast life and death. It is effective as the difference between guns and fruit. Fruit is use as a source of nutrition and the other as a source of protection or crime. This two are controversial issues that have a major role in the past years.

Vanitas

Describe in your own words the style of Dutch 17th and 18th Century still life painting. How does this painting style create a metaphor for mortality? Be specific and use as evidence things you can observe in the Rachel Ruysch painting Fruit and Insects, 1711 or the Jan van Huysum painting, Vase with Flowers, c. 1718-20.

Why and how does Hector Rene Membreno-Canales use the style of Dutch still life painting and the idea of Vanitas in his series Hegemony or Survival? Do you think the use of this style and the implied Vanitas metaphor for mortality is effective or heavy-handed? Please state clear reasons for your answer.

The Botany of Desire

In this excerpt from Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire, he reveals the mystery of the food chain and how it’s being administrated. Things that consumers usually take for granted such as buying potatoes and planting them appear to be much more complicated under federal regulation. He also expresses the concern about potato plants, under Environmental Protection Administration, are considered as pesticides. It brings our attention to the safety of the food we eat everyday.

The dramatic changes in agricultural production and productivity not only have an impact on us- the consumers, but also cause harms to the American farmers’ health and financial stability. As a solution for those issues, the agricultural biotechnology companies such as NewLeaft propose a new generation of plants with engineered genes that can act as pesticides against insects and diseases. That revolution can create a totally new notion of  so-called Information age of Agricultural in which a company has the right to own and take control over the plants’ gene information. If that happens, what will the price be ?

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