Katherine Lynn Sage

The different colors, values, shapes, sizes of shapes, and textures create a variety in the painting that doesn’t leave the viewer bored with too much unity or confused with too much variety. I think that there is a perfect mix of unity and variety in this painting, and it draws the eye in and keeps you interested and thinking about the subject matter. There is a repetition of the same blue and green colors as well as the same sweeping shapes that drape across the painting. Your eye seems to follow a path from the white sweep of color on the upper left of the painting down to the middle of the painting along the sweeps of different colors and finally to the bottom. Georgia O’Keeffe’s placement and coloring of these different shapes really draws the eye across the painting. The contrast between the white patches of color and the dark brown and black patches really brings emphasis to these areas of the painting.

Throughout my early teen years, I was exposed to different mediums of art and discovered that I could express myself through more channels than just paper. Although Barry found comfort in her 11 x 17 newsprint and some paint, I was able to focus my energy on making music and taking photographs. Without my art teachers, I wouldn’t have the expressive outlet I do today. My childhood was not filled with unhappiness as Lynda Barry’s was, but from both backgrounds, we found a warmth from the exposure of art that the educational system gave to us.

The painting takes what the eye can see and extends it further, to a realm that cannot be captured by someone unless they have the patience and diligence to see beyond the obvious and capture more than the eye permits.

From her auburn curls cascading from beneath her tilted hat, to her arm positioning, the trees, clouds, down to the tiniest blades of grass, they all slant one way or the other. The artist has utilized the diagonal line is multiple ways; the slight angles that Reynolds incorporated into each area provides a sense of movement in what could have been a dry and stagnant scene. Along with movement, there lies an illusion of depth: paired with shading, the use of line gives the perception of more area being included than there actually is. These lines also direct the viewer’s eye toward the sitter. Objects located around the edges of the composition lean towards the center, pulling the viewer’s glance directly to the

The artist creates color harmonies and contrasts throughout the whole peace which gives it a strange balance overall.

His hand is positioned on the bottom left of the frame with the fingers and palm situated towards the middle left side. The shoulders positioned in the top third cut through representing a horizon. The direction of the fingers makes your eye travel around the painting, the tie the slices through the middle of the shirt, the cuff of the shirt cuts across to stop your eye falling out of the frame, the lightness balancing all the darkness. The mouth dominates the image and drags you eye back to the

The convergence of the implied lines forming the river banks with the fading blue mountains on the right produce a left to right movement when viewing the painting. The invisible lines created by the mountain range and the river emphasize direction by moving the viewer from a narrow and cramped foreground to a vastly open background that seems to go on for miles. His use of lines to produce this movement down the river has an effect of taking the viewer on a short ride into the distance towards the open mountains under a clear blue sky with white fluffy clouds. In contrast the buildings in the distance are enveloped in white with much softer lines and less defined outlines. This progression from clearly outlined and defined to less defined and wispy shapes communicates the thought of starting a journey in firm reality and moving down a dreamy river towards the unknown. Carefree clouds, beautiful mountains, and blue water just take the viewer to a more serene place, away from the reality of the

Sandy Skoglund has been in the forefront of contemporary art in the United States, as well as overseas, for nearly two decades. Her dramatic impact to the art world didn’t begin overnight. After sheer dedication to art education she received her BA degree in Studio Art in 1968 from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Upon getting her BA, she pursued further education at the University of Iowa where she received her MD. With her remarkable educational background, Skoglund decided to expand her horizons by teaching. Her teaching career grew at a rapid pace and she found herself teaching at the University of Hartford from 1973 to 1976. In late 1976, she was offered a position at Rutgers University, New Jersey,

Even though the shapes where different (Triangle and Square), both were about the same size and tilted in the same way making it feel repetitive. “Circus Time” was also interesting because there was but also was not a focal point. I feel like there was a focal point because every time I looked at the painting I started with the empty shape in the middle and then looked at the rest. However, my boyfriend said he didn’t really know where to start looking with the painting. He said the colors were distracting but the empty space also caught his attention. After close consideration, I feel like “Circus Time” is more an example of “Brownian motion”. The artist didn’t use a focal points or perspectives to lead my eye anywhere; instead my eye naturally wandered around the painting not stopping at one

Further more, in the painting, “the Gleaners”, the entire screen is filled with contrast elements. First of all, the main figures in the front labor scene are full of rich vigor, contrasting to the background with silent objects such as hay, trees and farmhouse. Secondly, the color brightness of the front contrast to the back, as well as the comparison of relative sizes between figures and scenery, applying the principle of perspective. What’s more, the most classic is the horizontal line, the intersection of the sky and the ground, contrasting with the light source, from the top left. Consequently, 2D and 3D spatial effects are combined precisely. Meanwhile, the sense of space of the image is strengthened as well.

but the edges remind you how this isn’t reality, it's a refreshing way to bound a painting to a canvas. You also get to see the layering at the edge of the painting when it unfolds, reality blurring in and

As indicated by the shape in the foreground, the lines that signify the contour of the rocks and freestanding structure merge. The lines lead the eye vertically as it meets the center. When looking at the painting as a whole, the viewer can see how the artist uses straight

From what can be understood by the viewer, West has created the piece with a head-on perspective. Through the use of many imaginative sharp diagonal lines, that can be drawn from either the more centralized figures whose hand rest atop his head and back is turned toward the viewer or the figure from the far left corner who learns at an angle and holds a spear across his body, towards the very last beast that is placed near the far upper right corner, West is able to create space and distance. The pyramidal construction of figures, foreshortening, and atmospheric perspective also work collectively to draw the viewer into the painting more closely.

The artist I researched is Cindy Sherman. She is a American Photographer born on January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, New jersey. Her parents had five children and Cindy was the youngest of them all. Her parents were not quit interested in art. Her dad was a engineer and her mom was a teacher. In the early 1970s, Cindy enrolled at State University of New York to study art. There, Cindy discovered that painting was not her gift. Cindy stated, "I didn't want to make 'high' art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn't thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn't want the work to seem like a commodity." She could not express her artwork through panting. Instead, she began to take photos.

“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” - Plutarch. As Plutarch once said, painting is poetry because it sends a deeper message of what is represented. Every place has its artists some known some not that known, this essay has the purpose of noting Jessica Monroe, a local artist from the Valley who’s work, on my point of view, should be more recognize by other people.