Who is the artist you have chosen? Johannes Vermeer When were they working? 1632-1675 With what period/movement are they associated? Dutch Baroque What is their signature technique and/or style? What are they known for? Tenebrism and paintings of everyday life How do you plan on adapting the artist's technique and/or style to create your own original artwork? I plan on using tenebrism to adapt a modern day domestic scene featuring a girl who is using her laptop What materials and process will you use? Acrylic paint Will you be working from a reference photo (a photo to help you create your artwork)? If so, include one below. I created an image from my imagination What is their most famous artwork? Include a photo of it and label it with the identifying info (artist, date and title). The photo on top is by Vermeer and it is called The Girl with the Pearl Earring and it was made in 1665

For my artist I chose Johannes Vermeer. What led me to choose him is his beautiful style of painting. His art left a large impact on me and I was super excited to try to use his style and techniques. Vermeer was born in 1932 and died at the young age of 43. Some of his first paintings were focused on religious figures and mythical creatures and were painted on large scale canvases. After converting to another religion and being influenced by other artists, Vermeer was said to have changed his art style to a more secular style with smaller scale paintings. Some of these paintings are, for example, The Girl with the Pearl Earring and Kitchenmaid. At the time of his death he completed 35 paintings. Due to his career as a struggling artist, he was still in debt by the time he passed away. For my technique, I chose tenebrism. I decided to choose tenebrism because I like the idea of using extremely exaggerated shadows to focus the viewer’s eyes on the focal point of the piece. I was really excited to use it in a way that Vermeer had to create a simple but yet dramatic look. Tenebrism comes from the Italian word tenebroso which means murky or obscured. Because of the dark use of the shadows in contrast to the lighter focal point, tenebrism is like a extremely exaggerated form of chiaroscuro. I tried to use the domestic style of Vermeer and the high contrast technique of tenebrism to create my piece for this project. My project shows a modern domestic scene of a girl looking at her laptop. In the background, there is a dark wall with a blue highlight from the laptop. The laptop and the girl’s face are the focal points of the piece. "Tenebrism." Tenebrism | Glossary | National Gallery, London. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. "Vermeer." NGA | Vermeer | Woman Holding a Balance | Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.

"Cooking Supper" For this assignment I decided to recreate Dutch Baroque art. In order to try to create it, I tried to make high contrast within the photo while doing something that would happen in everyday life (aka cooking).

1.List 2 qualities that are similar in Renaissance and Baroque artwork One is the use of light and the use of advanced techniques. 2. List 2 qualities that make them different there was an emphasis on emotion rather than rationality and dynamism rather than than stasis. 3. How did the Counter Reformation influence Baroque art in Italy? After the church was split up, the Catholic Church in Italy spent their time trying to overwhelm the masses so they could attract new worshippers. 4. What is tenebrism? How is it different than chiaroscuro? Tenebrism is the use of dark and very dramatic lighting. Chiaroscuro is just highlights and shadows in general, but Tenebrism is only a certain way of using lighting. 5. How is Dutch Baroque art fundamentally different from Italian Baroque art? (hint: subject matter) 6. Italian Baroque art had lots of religious figures, but Dutch Baroque art did not because it was forbidden.

Gallery Visit Review For this assignment, I had the pleasure of viewing the Palo Alto Art Center with a friend. The show I visited was called Spectral Hues: artists + color. The featured artists were: Anne Appleby, Leo Bersamina, Omar Chacon, Freddy Chandra, Amy Ellingson, Eden V. Evans, Kristin Farr, Anoka Faruqee, Marguerite Fletcher, Stephen Giannetti, Mike Henderson, Karrie Hovey, Henry Jackson, Mitchell Johnson, Amy Kaufman, Keira Kotler, Richard Mayhew, Ron Nagle, Ruth Pastine, Mel Prest, Ken Price, Meghan Riepenhoff, Tamra Seal, Jenny Sharaf, Lisa Solomon, Victoria Wagner, and Nancy White. The show was focused around color theory. The work on display was a combination of many different creative mediums. Just some of the mediums I saw were paintings, sculptures, and other combinations of both. All of the art in this show used color in a unique or thought provoking way. At the beginning of the show entrance, they have a paragraph describing the show, and in one sentence they say, “Each color in this exhibition is used with purpose - to excite emotion, dazzle the eye, convey temperature, imply movement, or illustrate societal norms”. They explain, through the eye of the artist, we are able to learn, “the true nature of color and its power to transform how we see - and understand - the world”. I thought all of the art was really cool but there were certain parts of the show that really had an impact on me. One of the reasons I really liked this show, is the diverse uses of color each pieces had. The show had a nice ambiance to it as well, as a viewer, I could easily follow one art piece to the next without being distracted by something across the hall. While there was nothing I particularly disliked in the show, there were some pieces that mildly annoyed me. One of said pieces, is a canvas painted red with a slight gradient to the edges in a more black-red. While this did create a “What really counts as art?” discussion in my mind, it also created a sense of “I could do the same thing but not have it count as art”. One piece that I liked was a painting with lots of different colors painted in blocks. The paint itself had a lot of texture and layers which made the painting all the more interesting. The one piece that spoke to me was a painted and translucent acrylic sculpture. It’s called “Bask” and was made by Freddy Chandra in 2013. It looked like three lines of glass that had been painted just enough that you could see through it. I’m not fully sure why this piece spoke to me, but I believe it had something to do with the material that was being used. The color on the acrylic was not particularly vibrant, but it seemed to appear on the acrylic. In my eyes I believe this show was pretty successful. At first, we were the only ones viewing the show, but later others joined. I would recommend this show to others because it was really neat to see how different artists viewed colors in different ways. This show made me think about a lot of things. The most important question had me thinking what is really classified as art. I believe that each artists and person has their own opinion of what art is, but it is up to the individual to decide what it means for them. I would like to ask the curator why, at the beginning of the hallway, there is a wall full of art that seems to be drawn by kids. I would ask if it was intentional to compare that to the other artists paintings or if it had some other sort of meaning. Out of curiosity, I would also like to ask each of the artists what color means to them and why did they chose to use it in the way they did. If I were to capture my experience at the Palo Alto Art Center, I would describe it as a calming and pleasant experience, where I got to look at many different art mediums.

Why was 1 point perspective such an important artistic development during the Renaissance? This idea was important because it allows the artist to view the piece from a certain angle and creates more realism by doing so. Since realism/idealism were important in the classical period of Ancient Greece, the Renaissance was taking those elements and improving them. What did it allow artists to do that they had not done before? It allowed them to be able to draw landscapes more realistically and it allowed them to show a thing from a certain angle.

Mesopotamia: The Architects Name 5 things the Sumerians invented? City-state, formal religion, writing, mathematics, law and even architecture. What were Mesopotamian cities centered around? The belief that the gods dwelled on high. Aka the sky. What is a ziggurat? A flat sided pyramid, that seemed to have steps going up. Why were ziggurats built so high? the people thought that they would be closer to the gods. Aside from architecture, what was the other predominant form of art in Mesopotamia? Relief sculptures from wall carvings Egypt: The Art of Immortality Why is it not surprising that Egyptian art remained unchanged for 3,000 years? Art didn't change because it was centered around helping the pharaohs rather than the progression of their society. For whom was most Egyptian art and architecture created? Pharaohs. Where does most surviving Egyptian art come from? Surviving tombs What is the ka? A person’s spirit. What did Egyptians build to house the ka? They would mummify the body to hold the ka, but if that didn't work they also created portrait statues to house the ka. Describe the rigid formula used to depict the figure. The pose of the people depicted in the wall art is described as frontal and bisymmetrical, with arms close to the torso, as anatomy was a approximation at that time. What were some materials used to make sculptures? Why did they choose these materials? Since the statues were made to last forever, they were made of granite and diorite. What is the largest stone structure in the world? The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza. Why is King Tut so well known today despite being a fairly "unimportant" pharaoh? His tomb is the only one to be discovered in near condition.

In the top image, I showed me getting my first chinchilla. My chinchillas mean a lot for me, so getting her is very important to me and my family. In the bottom image, I'm holding my first report card with a letter grade (which is from today), and I'm very proud to say that it's all As. If I was to bury something in my tomb, I would bury my "special box". My special box has things from my life that have value to me, for example, I have pamphlets from plays I was in. In my afterlife I would want to be able to remember parts of my life on earth and all the memories I've made here.

For my charm I decided to pick a koi fish! In Japan, koi fish are signs of good luck, happiness and well being. Since koi fish have to work hard swimming up streams, they can also be interpreted as signs of courage and willpower. If I lived in a time where survival was hard, it would be nice to have a charm with these powers to encourage me to keep working hard.

What Art is To Me

Art is a physical or digital object or photograph which can interpreted by the viewer. I believe that all art has some sort of story and what makes it art is if that story or some story is seen by the person viewing it. I think that art, but more specifically art styles, like abstract painting, are good for the viewers because it is up to the interpretation of those seeing it. Some might think that art is easy to understand or is just a realistic painting, or is boring because the story is obvious to see. In conclusion I think what makes art is the story it tells and how the viewer feels about the piece.