ARTH 15
Monday October 28, 2013
Formal Analysis Cave art has been around since 25,000 BCE. It was the first form of what we would call today’s art gallery. Art is the expression of creativity through media such as painting, drawing, and sculpture. It has the power to convey thoughts, ideas, emotions, and sheer beauty. Artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many more have left the world in awe due to their amazing pieces of art. Many people follow these great artists’ footsteps and strive to leave the world in awe just like how they did. The artwork that caught my eye was a piece by Sam Rodriguez, titled Text Message. At first glance knowing the title of the work the message of the piece is that our thoughts and ideas are connected via cell phone, email, ect. The title Text Message is descriptive due to its strong discernible message that it portrays. The year it was created was 2012, a perfect year to create a piece on that subject due to the domination of the technological world. The year the piece was created was 2012; a date and age where communication lays on the cusp of physical interaction. It is of a year where almost everyone in the first world can figure out the artwork’s symbolic meaning. The artwork’s medium consists of latex and spray paint. Both materials are manufactured in factories, nowhere near close to being natural or earthy. This gives the underlying meaning that living in a world of text messages, communication is not real, authentic, or even natural. The artist used a rectangular shape for the format to give the piece a symmetrical look so that the viewer’s eyes would look at every part equally.
The subjects of Text Messages are human head silhouettes, brains, a letter with a text message, a bridge, a boat, a chair, a tree, and a clock. The last five subjects are merely thoughts that these people are thinking of. The artist uses line throughout the piece running across in many different angles. They appear to connect the human head silhouettes to the centered message. The lines in the piece are smooth, straight, and grainy in some areas. The lines are grainy toward the edges indicating that the outside parameter is not smooth like the rest of the piece.
The colors used in the piece are dull with very low saturation. They seem to make the images appear boring and bland as if there is no emotion involved in the messages. Green, Brown, and Yellow were very prominent in the piece giving a mental image of the colors of trees leaves throughout the 4 seasons. Green meaning life, Yellow meaning aging, and Brown meaning death. The colors used were more secondary due to the use of brown and green. The colors do blend but are not blended thoroughly. It is very easy to see where both colors meet.
The shapes are very geometric due to the use of squares, diamonds, and rectangles. They however do not overlap