Bill Hammond

Shane Cotton- Numbers 2011
acrylic on linen  275x 275 mm

This painting by Shane Cotton is not like his former paintings which are done on extreme large scales of canvas, but is more isolated in a restriction of space and movement. The colors used bring out a sense of dark ages. It has one dominant image in the center that to me looks confusing or is in the state of a mess, jumbled chords and threads. A smaller image above it and another below it. then across the bottom the text 'NUMBERS'. I can easily put this into a religious context. The image in the middle describing the beasts or antichrist. The image below meaning where the beast had emerged from. then the image above talking about the absence of the Holy spirit. The 'NUMBERS' across the bottom can mean that we need numbers in everyday life today and mainly to connect with in the use of technology but do we really know what it means?. A beautiful and inspirational painting that can also be a warning in terms of the future. GC

Emory Douglas

This peice by Emory Douglas is of Malcom x and represents the struggles of african americans during the black civil rights movement.Malcom x was one of many black activists that fought for equal rights as the "whites"in america.the spears in the background of this peice would represent the african culture malcom x held as a desendent of slaves brought to america from africa.Emory Douglas has captured Malcom x with a n expression that reflects his power in the black community aswel as his passion for his oppressed affrican brothers and sisters and the struggles they faced in America.

Alphonse Mucha - "Gismonda", 1895 (Group 2)

This images was a poster that Mucha made to advertise a play. This was the image that catapulted him into fame. The woman in the poster is a french actress called Sarah Bernhardt.
Q Bajac et al. sum up her effect on Mucha perfectly; "Her extraordinary personality had the effect of maturing the artist's style remarkably, as until he produced rather academic, conventional works. Mucha became successful because he was able to project how Bernhardt wished to be perceived." Reference in comments.

JOHN PULE TERM2 WEEK 1 context and form.

John Pule is considered one of New Zealand’s most respected artists, evident by his inclusion in the following collections: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Auckland Museum, Auckland; Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland; Wellington High Court, Wellington; Manukau City Council, Auckland and Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, Victoria University, Wellington.

Pule explained:

“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organize ideas, so I just started writing.” This Quote means that this is how John Pule explain his Art by drawing, a lot of mysterious patterns and symbols in his Artwork and makes our eyes see many different things in his Art of life.

this is a painting from shane cotton it is very detailed with maori pattern like the carvings off a marae. the painting is weighted through the center with taniwha tipe figure clusted together as if they are growing in front of me and gathering more figure, getting bigger and bigger. the whole image reminds me of the milky way and when i read the name it seemed to confirm it for me when i first read it i translated it as person or controler of the stars but then there is star eater that could be why it looks like it is growing?

Term 2: Week 2 - Bad Cop

I don't really like this artwork in many ways. The layout, colors and texts he has used seems mismatched. The gray and black fog background is nebulous. It gives the viewer a dark intimidation look. The Mary figure which is centered in the middle is very unclear and undefined because of the colors that has been used and lines that form the figure are not clear enough to see. The lines of red is obscure and doesn't match with the other colors within the work. It looks like it was the last layer of color in the artwork and it seems unfinished and half-done to me. The wings form of lines are thick and thin in places and are unclear to see when it overlaps the cliff. The patterns on the sides seems to fade and the text on top looks like a stencil. Plus the text he has used on the bottom is obscure because of the style of font he has used is too thin as it overlaps the cliff which has a lot of detail lines parallel with the font.