Art in downtown Reno

This is a sculpture by Chris Atcheson called "Gallop-a-Pace". It was created in 2001 and it is located in Bicentennial Park. To me, this sculpture is very neat and when passing by it makes you stop to take a deeper, longer look at it. I really enjoy this art piece and I really like how large it is. I could never imagine myself being able to create something like this at all. I have a lot of respect for artists, especially when it comes to something like this.

Drifting The Biggest Little City In The World

I did my drift starting on the corner of First and Liberty. On my drift I took pictures of "natural" art work covering random things throughout downtown. I also took pictures of flowers, I searched for a group of single colored flowers with one random/different color involved in the group. I found, most of the time, the random colored flower to be yellow. Last, I took a picture of the sunset over downtown. I'm a little dissapointed because I just realized I would have really enjoyed having a picture of the sunset every night over downtown. Sunsets are my favorite! Anyways, here's my pictures..

Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek

John Taylor, Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek:

Howling Wolf: Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek:



When comparing two paintings of the same scenario, John Taylor’s painting, Treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge, is a representational art piece because it resembles real things in a real world.  The painting Treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge by Howling Wolf is definitely the more abstract of the two paintings because it does not try to resemble the real world. Both pieces are representing the same treaty signing, but they are doing so in a different way. With Taylor’s it is much more organized and realistic, as to Wolf focuses more on color and placement. The landscape is very different in these pieces. With Taylor’s piece the landscape has depth and texture, Wolf’s landscape has no depth and is basically just lines. In Taylor’s art piece, everyone is standing much closer together than in Wolf’s this could suggest culture differences with personal space. Also, Taylor’s piece makes our eyes direct our attention to the center rather than the whole painting like Wolf’s, this could be because Taylor is more concerned about the treaty then the entire village and people in it. In Taylor’s work it is hard to determine the Native American’s role and even if they are male or female. In Wolf’s work it is easy to tell the difference between the sexes and they look to be a bigger part in the whole ordeal. Overall these pieces are about the same situation, but they vary greatly.

Jasper Johns

"Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another."- Jasper Johns

Jasper John emerged in the art scene in the last 1950’s with a new type or art work. To me, Jasper Johns painting Thee Flags represents the artists’ role of number four by reveling hidden truths and personal feelings. In this painting it shows the flag getting smaller and smaller, thus making the flag appear weak to its country. His ideas were that the flag is only getting “seen but not looked at". (picture from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp2ZWIPbnOBb28Ew0H1LriZQSks0nnZ4oXjwQpHa9psGmRHni06xKJCSo921y0nUksnhyD3Fk7nnWRk1v3UPwQvy0z0YaSNnF2bxqx8meVkHurHEOn09XIFFIwO0vnjA41HsEttxxfkz8/s1600/Three+Flags+(1958)+by+Jasper+Johns.jpg)

Another art piece that Jasper Johns did is Flag. This art piece was made out of newspaper scraps painted over multiple times. I believe this represents our culture as Americans. Again, we are seeing the painting (or in this case the newspaper) but we are not actually looking at it. I think Jasper Johns art makes people actually think and question what they are seeing instead of just accepting the sight of an art piece, or maybe even the world.

(Picture from: http://www.michaelarnoldart.com/Jasper_Johns.htm)

Worlds Apart

Last week as I was strolling around the Chester Arnold exhibit “Between Heaven and Earth” shown at the Nevada Museum of Art, the one piece of work that stood out to me the most was titled Worlds Apart.  This piece was created in 1995. In this picture there is a very large mountain separated in the center with two houses placed on the top of each side. Through the gap in the mountain you can see the hustle and bustle of the city down below. It is a very beautifully detailed oil painting.

Chester Arnold’s work is all about the environment and how we humans treat and live with it. “The paintings united in this exhibition ask viewers to consider the implications of unchecked economic development and industrialized growth on the natural environment. Often, Arnold's work is infused with a dose of religious or political inflection that generates passionate dialogue about the topics he tackles. "If this is God's will," Arnold once remarked while referring to one of the abused landscapes he depicted on canvas, "something is wrong."” (http://www.nevadaart.org/exhibitions/detail?eid=157).

This piece is particular about how much our earth can handle.  “Worlds Apart shows a bustling metropolis congested with traffic and freeway overpasses. Multiple cliff-top are divided by a deep chasm crumbling beneath them-perhaps an ominous warning to suggest that there is only so much the earth can sustain.” –Nevada Museum of Art.

To me this piece portrays the lack of compassion we have for our planet. It’s showing us we need to take care of the Earth or it will fall apart on us. The planet has provided natural resources for us to survive, but we have given no thanks in return besides excessive building and pollution.