Emilio Ambasz



I like Emilio Ambasz’s drawing, “casa de retiro spiritual” (the house of spiritual retreat) in MOMA. The drawing is simple, clean, and neat with very delicate lines and colors. The drawing is not loud, yet stunning with its clean lines. He uses wavy and perfectly straight lines, and both kind of lines come together nicely. This is similar to his concept of the design, which is embodied these heterogeneous environmental surroundings, which is composed of nature and building. Moreover, his drawing was presented in 1979 and his idea was advanced, because the features were close to the environmentally conscious “Green Building.”  The Green Building aims for us to achieve sustainable environment by developing infrastructure, lowering energy consumption, using renewable energy, conserving water and minimizing waste. The actual building was built in Spain.





Field trip

We visited two design studios in Manhattan; one studio named “Common Name and Linked by Air,” and another studio was “Whitney Museum Studio.”

At the Common Name and Linked by Air, they said that they are sharing studio space. They presented their works such as web sites, books etc., which were very clean and neat. One work in particular has a unique concept, which allows a person to read the book two different ways on the same pages. In other words, each story starts from opposite side of the page in a different way. The designer of the book said that there are two different concepts that coexist on each page, but they are still related to each other. The concept was interesting and different, yet the book was still very clean and modern, probably because it only used two colors. I would like to make my works look simple, but I feel it would be hard to achieve.

     As a contrast, they show us a website, which has an intentionally awkward design; the designer uses a busy background that makes the texts hard to read. This is designed by a Yale graduate school student, who has studied the principle of design, so the meaning of the design weighs more than the authenticity of it.

     One of their web site projects was worked on for one year, they really liked it. However, they said that they would be broke if they spent so much time on projects, so they had to compromise the time spend for each project. One of the designers used to work for IDEA, where he learned a great deal about designs. He had a responsibility for a part of the projects in the huge design firm. Now he has started his own design studio, which he can take in charge entirely on the projects. After the studio Common Name and Linked by Air, we traveled to Whitney Museum Studio.

     At the Whitney Museum Studio, they showed us the advertising poster they made for Whitney Biennial. According to the designers, they said that they trust each other, so they just concentrate on each other’s work. I feel that trust is a really important aspect when we work as a team. One of the designers used to work as an intern first, and then decided to work there. She said that she was really comfortable working there. That would be perfect to work in a design studio where we like.

I realized that the projects should be on time in business, however, it would be fine anytime if the projects are for a hobby. The works have to meet the budgets and the due date in order to maintain the business and make a profit.   

Paula Scher

by Pentagram,

The identity is easily rendered in other languages, here in Taiwanese-Chinese.

 The new logotype can also be rendered in one color or in black and white.

The new renu® identity is designed to stand out from its competition.



Paula Scher's poster for the 2nd Chicago International Poster Biennial.

Truvia™ is designed to stand out from the competition.

Paula Scher is my favorite designer. She states in an article, “It’s important to have ideas and think about things because design styles, like technologies, change all the time.” Paula Scher is a Graphic designer at Pentagram, and she created designs for a healthcare brand called Bausch + Lomb by new logotype and packaging. The primary colors of the designs are green and blue. These colors give me a sense of calmness and cleanliness, because of the association of those ideas with these colors. For example, water, the sky, and wind is blue, while trees, glass and ecology is often visualized using green. Furthermore, Scher's poster for the 2nd Chicago International Poster Biennial is  quite simple as well. The only element, number “2”, is constructed with circular lines. The design is not only simple, but also has visually interesting, due to the movement and impact with the huge number “2.”
     In addition to her previous work, Scher also designed the new, natural, no-calorie sweeteners’ packaging design and the brand identity with Daniel Weil. When I went shopping, the box caught my attention, because the box was simple, clean, and cute. The box was also very functional, since it was easy to find out information about the product. It is a natural sweetener that uses a transparent green along with the image of a powdered sweetener on a strawberry.

Kate Gilmore

                                        

One of my favorite artists is Kate Gilmore, because I can see the sense of humor and the clear picture what she tries to express to us through her performance piece. Also, I like the simplicity of her performance pieces. She is a performance artist and sculptor. I saw her performance art titled "Standing Here 2010" in the Whitney biennial at Whitney Museum. When I was walking through the section, her performance took my attention what is happening on the screen. Dressed up lady is destroying the wall around her. Later on, I realize that she may purposefully wear obvious feminine outfit and destroy the wall around her with over action for helping us to get a sense of her message through her performance. After seeing her performance, I read description about her performance piece on the wall at the entrance space. Immediately, I agree upon the description on her art piece. I tangibly get her main idea, subject matter, and feeling through her performance piece. Moreover, she is like a spokesman for women how is feeling in challenging on tasks and facing many difficulty at surrounding society, so I easy to understand why I compelled her performance. At same time, the main theme is not only issue for woman, but also it could be subject matter for men; what femininity as women and what masculinity as men is at our role respectively on our society. Also, her performance art seem to illustrate of conflicting with femininity and masculinity side as a woman artist. The subject matter is universal when women attempt to find identity who we are, and we all face some difficulty to find out our identity.  

As contrast, Joseph Beuys' work is hard to get the idea of his work. He is also sculptor, performance artist, teacher, and political activist. His works are not recognizable of the idea compare to Kate Gilmore's works. Their works are categorized contemporary art. There is a question coming up in mind their works are art? It could be an answer on his state, " Every man is an artist. Make the secrets productive." He attempted to repeal all difference between art and non-art. There are many aspects to evaluate quality on art works, which is craftsmanship, conception, and balance of composition; still anything could be an art. Art has variation on category, such as different kinds of medias, execution, and quality. On contemporary art, artists are trying to find out new approach to express their point of view, and then viewer touched and linked the feeling when the viewers have same taste and inspiration. This seems to be similar to music. Musicians express their feeling by creating music. Music also has different kind of genre, such as classic, pop, jazz, and rock; we pick the song to listen and could refresh, encourage, and relax same as visual art. Kate Gilmore's performance art piece gave me a power and encouragement to tackle new challenge.

Inhae Renee Lee

Inhae Renee Lee is an animation artist. She creates two characters with Clay, sets up each scene based on her creative story, and takes a photograph. The story is when she was a child, she placed her baby teeth under her pillow and she found quarter instead her teeth in next day morning. Then, she was wondering where her tooth went. Many years later, a little tooth was standing at the door and said "Hello." That is her story’s beginning. I like the process, which she creates her images.

 

 

Jan von Holleben

Jan von Holleben is a photographer. He creates the image arranged on the ground, looks down at it, and shoots it.  We can make similar images with using Photoshop software, but I feel that he also enjoys the process of making the pieces. His art making is similar to Joan Jonas, who thinks the process is more important than final results. I also would like to enjoy the process like those artists enjoy making and creating their pieces. 

visited the Mason Gross gallery

We visited the Mason Gross gallery in CSB building, and when I saw Joan Jonas’ drawing, it reminded me of Cy Twombly’s drawing. Their drawings look similar, but their processes are different. The drawings by Joan Jonas are drawn with a pencil tied to another person’s hands and feet. The artist uses the person’s hands and feet and creates scribbling lines; some are circular and some are straight vertical lines next to each other. Cy Twombly also draws those similar lines, although what they are trying to express by using those scribbling lines is not the same.