Mya Lin's Vietnam Memorial

Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial was a awsome way to deal with the whirlwind of pain left after the Vietnam war. She was able to take some of the pain that was felt after the solders came home and turn it into a wonderful peace about healing. The marble is black and is reflective so that that way when you look at it your reflection is staring back at you. There is also 53,661 names that flow on the walls. They are in chronological order so that every solider can be honored. Some Veterans did not agree with the design. They wanted a statue and a flag added. After a long battle they got the changes they were looking for without damaging the inetgrety of the art piece. All in all the piece of art work is a inspiring piece that brings the nation together over such a contraversial and painfull time in Americas history. 

Pics i took while drifting downtown

Wolf vs. Taylor

In my opinion John Taylor’s opinion is more representational and Howling Wolf’s is more abstract. John Taylor’s form is very literal, how the naked human eye would see it, while Wolf’s is more abstract and less literal. I think Howling Wolf’s, due to his heritage, wanted to depict landmarks and features of the land. I think the biggest cultural differences is Wolf’s picture is he is painting it as if his ancestors and looking down on these proceedings. Their ancestors are play a very important role in their present day life. Taylor’s painting on the other hand is showing what he saw through his eyes. The angles of both painting suggest both artists have a very different view of what is important. In Taylor’s art work the characters kind of blend together. There really is no individual, while in Wolf's painting is all about the individual and how they work together as a society. I think Taylor’s work is authentic to the best of his ability. Women play a huge role in both society’s, the difference is women in Wolf’s culture are shown respect and are given a proper place in society. In Taylor’s society women are used and abused, constantly given no respect and under appreciated.

Chester Arnold's 'Landscape with the fall of Icarus'

April Arett

Art 160

09-15-10

Chester Arnold Exhibit

     The piece of art work I choose was “Landscape with the fall of Icarus”, by Chester Arnold. I choose this piece not because of the content of the writing next to it, although it definitely helped make my decision, but because of the way it almost spoke to me. There is a huge mountain in this particular painting. Along this mountain there is a two lane path that’s carved out of the side of this monstrous beauty. This giant mountain is a reference to the famous Tower of Babel where instead of worshiping and remembering the accomplishments of God, people came to rejoice for the achievements of the people. God then punished the people by scattering culture and dialects throughout the world. I think it's interesting how Chester Arnold chose to retell this peace of history in his art work. He also retells a story of a Greek boy, Icarus, who is so overjoyed with the possibility and actuality of flying and freedom that he disobeyed his fathers direct orders not to fly too close to the sun and fell to his death. This is very much a depiction of humans and how we have a habit of blatantly disregarding wisdom offered from practiced hands. We often find out that if we would have taken the advice given, we would not of fallen flat on our face, meeting out end. You will also notice that to the right of the winding line of cars there is a huge bolder falling from a near by mountain. It looks as though it is about to crash down on some unsuspecting cars. I believe this is depicting humans as thoughtless creatures. They are completely ignorant to the danger, more interested in destroying the breath taking beauty around us, which in the end will lead to our demise. This is also apparent when you look close and you see a group of miners getting ready to blast off the side of the mountain. Humans are more destructive to the environment than ever, killing our natural resources of this world until there is nothing left to destroy. I absolutely love how Chester Arnold depicted this huge problem in this painting. Chester Arnold was inspired to paint this piece after he took a trip to Yosemite National Park and saw how tourism and capitalism has effected our delicate balance with nature. I think this is an amazing painting. I love how Chester Arnold was blatantly showing how flawed humanity is and how in the end it wont be a natural disaster that leads to our demise but ourselves exhausting what precious natural resources we have left. It is amazing to me how this painting can inspire so many emotions.