Visions of the American West: Masterworks from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Contrary to what some may believe, Cheekwood is not only known for their beautiful botanical gardens and their extensive collection of Chihuly art pieces. In fact, starting on October 22nd, 2011 and going through February 26th, 2012, Cheekwood will have a very special event which showcases artwork, Plains Indian artifacts, Wild West show objects, and firearms all from the age of the famous/historical Buffalo Bill. Something different than the normal art gallery, this particular showcase may indeed be something that the ladies can easily convince their husbands or boyfriends to come to as well. Buffalo Bill was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for his service to the US Army and was one of the most colorful figure of the American Old West. So put on your cowboy boots, saddle up, and head on down to Cheekwood for an exhibit to remember.

Frist Center- Projected Histories

Starting this Friday, the Frist Center will be hosting a photography exhibit called Projected Histories. Although not nearly as big as the Warhol extravaganza, this exhibit will be sure to not disappoint. The artist behind Projected Histories is a Vanderbilt assistant professor by the name of Vesna Pavlovic. Pavlovic teaches photography and digital media classes. After getting her Masters in fine arts degree in visual arts from Columbia University in 2007, Pavlovic has showcased her artork in several different, very prestigious, venus. She has been featured in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Tennis Palace Art Museum in Helsinki, Carinthian Museum of Modern Art in Klagenfurt, Austria, Photographers' Gallery in London, and FRAC Center for Contemporary Art in France. The most current exhibit of hers, at the Frist here in Nashville, showcases series of "found" slides from the vacations of one family over the years. Mark Scala, chief curator at the Frist Center commented on the exhibit saying that "Vesna Pavlovic shows that photography's apparent truthfulness allos it to both conceal and reveal cultural attitudes." With a statement like that, and the given travel record of her artwork there is no reason why the lines should not be out the door for this exhibit.

Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol's Work

Now through September 11th, Andy Warhol will be showcasing one of his projects titled Warhol Live at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. This exhibit presents a comprehensive exploration of his work as experienced through the lens of music and dance. Although Andy Warhol never actually composed music or choreographed dance, the influence of these two "live" art forms was felt in almost every medium he explored: drawing, filmmaking, graphic design, installation, painting, performance, photography, print making, sculpture, stage design, and television. From the time he moved to New York in 1949 until his death in 1987, Warhol illustrated nearly 50 record album covers, all encompassing very diverse musical genres. He also created memorable depictions of well known dancers such as Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham. This exhibit, encompassing almost 300 pieces, is one worth seeing. By portraying already known things in a new light, it can prove to be very interesting to even those least knowledgable about the art world.

Musica

The public art known as Musica in downtown Nashville was created by Alan LeQuire in 2003, which also happens to be his largest sculpture to date. The statue is located on a grassy knoll at the center of a roundabout where Division Street, Demumbreum, and 17th Avenue South all meet. Featuring nine nude figures, both male and female, the statue is approximately 38 feet tall. All the figures are in a circular pattern dancing together. There are five at the base and the remaining four rise up in the center. the artist LeQuire stated that his concept behind Musica was to "make a statement about individualism/diversity and racial harmony." In fact, using live models to help sculpt the people for the piece, he was accurately able to create two Caucasian women and one Caucasian man, an African American man and woman, one Asian woman, a Native American man, and a Hispanic man and woman. Although there was some early controversy over the nudity of the piece, the public artwork is now, and will forever be, a known landmark in the city of Nashville.

Guider/Irvin Studio

1. How does the process of platinum printing affect the way that Guider's photos look?
- Most prints are normally done using silver. However, silver is sensitive to light and only has 10 values between blackest black and whitest white. By using a process of platinum as the sensitizing material for printing Guider is able to show much more detail in his prints. Platinum has 100 values between black and white (as opposed to silver) which allows for such exquisite detail that it almost gives a 3D quality to the prints. Also, by using platinum the prints will remain in very good condition.

2. Explain the values (scale from white to black) in Guider's photos.
- Guider's photos range in value from black to grey to white. And while there may not be too many other colors, the photos all really seem to have a very vibrant and 3D look to them. Also, the sky and clouds always seem to look brighter in the photos while the focal point of the picture are darker with very detailed shading.

3. How have Stacey Irvin's travels affected her work?
- Stacey Irvin has traveled all over the world to places like China, Kenya, Ecuador, and even to a small town of The Uighurs people. Because of her travels, Stacey was able to capture a large variety of things like culture, community life, and ethnicity- all things that are very different in America. Also, due to her travels and the language barriers Irvin had to learn to adapts to different environments as well as communicate with the locals, even without using spoken words. One thing that I found interesting that Irvin talked about today was how she would gain her subject's trust by letting them take her picture first and then they would then allow her to take theirs. I think that learning something like this from her travels really has a positive impact in her work. It allows her subjects to really put their guards down and be open to expressing their true emotions to the camera.


4. I chose to analyze this piece of Guider's artwork because I really just love the values that the platinum bring out. The clouds are so incredibly 3 dimensional that they appear to be popping out of the page, along with the detailing of the water. The colors, being only on the scale from black to white, I think add to the simplicity and beauty of the image. The form of this picture gives off a calming vibe; there is not too much going on, and the waves look peaceful. The horizontal lines of the clouds and water give off the illusion of motion, and that is a specific quality about this print that I love. I would have some further questions to ask Guider about this picture regarding its content, like what the significant of the structure in the water is.

Me at the opening night of the LeQuire art show! The snow-cones were fantastic! :)

Collage: Bound By Time

My collage’s theme is based on the concept of living one’s life constantly racing against/being bound to time. This summer I am taking four classes along with a 150 hour internship. Therefore, I rarely have time to do things with my friends, go on vacation with my family, and most of my weekends are consumed with taking online tests, writing papers, or studying for my upcoming GRE exam. The clocks in the collage represent almost an entrapment for all the things that I wish I had the time for. The things inside the clocks, like flowers, friends, delicious desserts, are all things that I feel as though I don’t even have a moment to spare for. My life these past few weeks has been moving a million miles an hour, no time to stop and enjoy the countless blessings that each passing summer month brings. I chose to put things inside the clocks such as flowers, friends, family, and desserts because they are all representative of things that I love and things that, given the opportunity, I would choose to spend my free time with. The words up at the top corner represent things that remind of happiness and relaxation such as: ‘relax on the lake’, ‘retreat to the beach’,  and ‘ice cream’. You’ll notice that the words at the bottom center of the collage are all dark and rather somber. These words, unfortunately, represent more of an accurate picture of how I feel at times, simply overwhelmed with work and the stress of school. The staircase, starting out dark and then getting lighter, represents the road that I see my summer taking. Times may be tough now, but as the summer ends I will slowly reach that ‘dream land’ that I so badly want to be at. And after all, I knowingly took on this many hours and by doing so I will be able to graduate an entire year early, which will cause emotions that will not even compare to the stress that has been consuming me during these few weeks. Lastly, the path of shoes symbolizes to me the journey that I am on. I may not get to do it wearing the fun heals, or awesome active shoes that I wish I could, but the destination that I can picture myself working towards is entirely worth every late night study session.


-Color- The colors inside the clocks are all bright and peaceful, representing happiness and the feelings of a vacation. The complementary colors can be seen on the borders of the clocks. Analogous colors can be seen in the flowers, specifically the paint sample flowers and vase in the top left clock. Saturated colors are in the red and orange flowers in the right clock. I show examples of dull colors in the background of some of the shoes in the top right corner. Warm and cool colors are scattered throughout, in the phrase cutouts and in the beach background inside the clocks.
-Light- I represent both dark and light areas through the staircase. The bottom is darker, representing how I feel spending my summer vacation taking summer classes, and the lighter represents the peacefulness of what I am working towards.
-Texture- Seen through the staircase, the black lines give a sense of roughness to the image.
-Line- An implied line is achieved through the shoes, and I have axises through my clocks.
-Space- by layering the images behind the clocks I give the illusion of depth, with a background being the images, and the foreground being the clock’s hands.
-Scale- bigger objects such as the desserts, running shoes, and the large scenic picture in the center of the collage have a larger scale because those are things that I really enjoy and describe a part of me. The running shoes in particular because, begin an exercise science major, I value a healthy body image and understand the importance of exercise. Smaller images, things like some of the flowers, the terms migraine and headache are smaller because while they do show significance in my life, they are not apparent enough nor do they influence me frequently enough to impact my personality.
-Symbolism-
#1. Clocks- time constriction of the things that I love and really enjoy doing, that I often find myself unable to do.
#2. The darkened staircase- the emotions of the summer, beginning with difficulty but ultimately ending with a happier picture.
#3. The path of shoes- the journey and the constant reminder that I have to give myself to focus and keep powering through.
#4. The black and white pot of money-flowers- I really thought this image was humorous in the way it described my financial situation recently. With it being black and white it gives a sense of dying/ lack of funds.
-Myself- Some of the hobbies and interests that can be seen in my collage are the exercise shoes, the apron- because I do enjoy cooking, and the bathtub in the upper clock- because I relish in the few times I get to relax with a bubble bath, along with several more.
-Friends and family- Seen in the bottom left clock I have picture of some of my best friends from high school along with a picture of my family and me at my senior performance, both groups of people I enjoy spending time with.
-My country- There are several scenic pictures in the collage that represent places throughout the country that I would love to visit some day. It has always been a dream of mine to travel more. One day I hope to have the blessing of time to do that.
-The world today- It is filled with so many things that deserve out time and attention to. Unfortunately, we often get consumed in other more trivial things that distract us from nature’s true wonder.
-Art- Art fits into my world today by means of helping me sort and almost prioritize things in my life. Through this collage I was able to step back and see things I have been neglecting and things that I spend far too much time worrying over.
-History- history has shaped who I am today through the things that my parents have grown up knowing, and then them passing that on down to me. I look at my collage and see so many things that I love, like baking, exercise, going to the beach, and I see pieces of my parents in all of those.

Parthenon/LeQuire Gallery

Parthenon-
1. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century Greece, whose main function was to show dedication and a protective place to show signs of worship to the Greek goddess Athena.
2. The Parthenon's metopes show stories of the battle between the centaurs and the regular people. The Pediments, the big triangle at the top of the Parthenon, is a story of the birth of Athena and how she came out as a full grown adult from the top of Zeus' head. It also tells how she is the goddess of war.
3. Doric (outside) & Ionic (inside)
4. The Parthenon is in Nashville because we once had the World's Fair here, and Nashville is also sometimes referred to as the 'Athens of the south'. This is one of the sculptures that was left over after the World's Fair finished.
5. This monument doesn't really feel relevant to me today as a Nashville resident. I do think that it is interesting to learn about the history of the Parthenon and how it cam to be, but in regards to today, there is not really anything that I can relate to with it.

LeQuire Gallery-
1. Being able to discuss the artist's work with him most certainly changes my impression of the artwork I am viewing. It allows me to understand more clearly the message that the artists is trying to get across. Also, it draws a greater understanding out of myself for how hard the artists work and the amount of time and energy they put in to each piece of work.
2. Greg Decker's paintings, for the most part, brought positive feelings to arise within me. The use of bright vibrant colors and light images makes for a happy mood.
3. With the exhibit installed with specific rooms dedicated to certain artists and particular types of work allows me to get a better understanding what kind of work an artists does, and what they are capable of doing.
4. One painting that I really loved was titled 'The Sacrifice of Isaac'. The painting portrays a body of water with only one gorgeous tree in the middle of it all. And then more in the foreground of the painting is some sort of saw, looking like it is being handed to the observer. My personal response to the work is that the artist is asking if we would have the ability to take the life, whether it be the tree or our son, and follow God's commands as Abraham did so. I loved how the artists took the traditional biblical story and made it into something entirely new. A sculpture that I really thought was interesting was the group of 'body forest' in the sculpting room. The sculptures were well over  10 feet tall, and all had a different contour to them. Personally, I found each one to have a different personality, and I loved how each was made with different colors/materials, and how the texture appeared different for each tree figure.