Psykter pottery blog

This week I chose a piece of pottery entitled Psykter and is attributed to Oltos from Athens. Oltos is assumed to have done over 150 piece of pottery and two of his works have actually been signed by him. He was also a master at the relief line and his simple style is very popular. This piece was built for the purpose of cooling wine and depicts athletes training in the gym with their teachers. There are many different types of athletes from disk throwers, to their teachers, to a flute player accompanying the exercises. The most noticeable thing stylistically is that each figure is separate from the others and is adjusted to fit the curving of the vase.

Egypt Today

Link: http://prezi.com/30hvlce-yfdi/copy-of-art-history-egypt-today/

Why Art?

http://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/why-art/

In this article Makoto Fujimura is talking about why everything we seem to do revolves around art. His examples are types like when we brag about our children being in a play, or on a quiet Sunday afternoon we listen to quiet music or the type of restaurants we visit for brunch. Because Makoto believes art is all around us, it becomes more of a question of which art do we chose to immerse ourselves in? I think this idea relates to the ancient times that we have studied where art was such an integral part of life that it wasn't even seen the way we view art now. I agree with him when he says that because art is such an involved part of our lives that we just only need to decide what art and completely dedicate ourselves to it.

Pottery in Archaic Greece

This week for my blog entry I have chosen to discuss the third slide of our archaic section, The pottery is depicting a funerary procession. The decisions the artist made on who to include are related to who was important the time this pot was built. The style of the story drawn on the pot is very similar to ancient Egyptian art and the styles of the way the people are drawn are still very minimalist and look unnatural. The texture of the pot looks to be smooth, but that could be deceiving, parts of the artwork, like the legs of the horse, could be deeply carved in and cause rivets over the pot and ruin the idea of a smooth outside texture. The colors are very few and look to be natural colors that would’ve been easily in demand archaic Greece.

The artwork from this time period is very reminiscent and similar to that of ancient Egyptian artwork in the sense that it copies their ‘storyboard’ style. The procession wraps around the entire pot and has two levels to the tale, although it seems that to show the importance of the death, the people following the procession are on the top level while the animals are on the bottom with smaller people that are not as important. This is a depiction of a funerary procession, which was very common in archaic and classic Greece when a political figure or leader died. The Greek were very fond of their leaders and these processions were elaborate and respectful to the leaders and what they achieved in their lifetime.

Downtown Presbyterian Church

Today I'm going to discuss my visit to the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. This is a rare church in my experience because I have never seen a church presented in this way. The site, I don't think had much affect on the feel of the building because currently it is set in a modern city, and, when one isn't paying attention, it looks just like any other building downtown. I felt like the space was very open mainly in the sanctuary, which is similar to my experience in many christian places of worship. I felt like the light was very warm and inviting, there were a few dark places in corners where no one would really ever be. The decoration is where the building begins to separate itself from common church decorations. This church is based off of many ancient Egypt places of worship, there are pillars ornately drawn on the walls as if to make you feel like you're inside a temple in ancient Egypt looking out into the desert. The people who created this building also found a way to incorporate modern culture, the stained glass window, with Egypt, depictions of papyrus and the sun. The building, on the outside looks as if it just another stone building in the same drab gray color of the buildings downtown, but once you step inside, there are wooden chairs, and stone walls. The colors are bright reds and yellows, unlike a normal place of worship in christian culture which would have dull colors even for something extravagant. The colors are representative of Egyptian culture and the bright colors they used to draw attention. I feel that if a person never walked inside the Downtown Presbyterian Church they would feel that it followed the rhythm of all the buildings downtown and it doesn't really stand out, I know that for my group, before we had been inside, we couldn't even find the building because it followed the same color scheme as the rest of that part of downtown. The distinctive features are the pillars and the decorations inside the building, the ornate design is what everyone will remember because it is so different and unlike anything we are used to seeing these days.

Ancient Sumarian Sculptures

1. For the first entry, pick a work that you have seen this week in class. Using class notes and your textbook, write two paragraphs about this work. Your entry should discuss any formal elements of your example and relate your example to the historical and social context to which it belongs.


The work that I chose were the sculptures from the Sumerian region. These sculptures were found around 2700 B.C. in modern day Iraq. An element to discuss would be the size of the people, some of the people look as though they would be averaged sized, while others look dwarfed, and one of them looks almost giant-like compared to the rest. This could be due to the amount of importance the culture places on certain positions held in their religion. This is common in places in the ancient world; people who are royal or very important are larger, and the common people are smaller. Another element is the subject matter of the sculpture.

The first thing one would notice about these sculptures is their larger-than-normal eyes, most likely sculpted in this way to show the awe and attention the people are giving to what they're worshiping. From the way the people are dressed they are priests and their clasped hands show their intense prayer and devotion to the gods or goddesses of the time. As a social element; I found while researching that people would leave these sculptures in their temples as a show of their worship or love for the thing they were worshiping in the culture.

An Underground Arts Space fits to a T!

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2010/04/01/an_underground_arts_space_fits_to_the_t/

This article talks about SHIFTboston’s new project; which is nicknamed TUTS for the Tremont Underground Theater Space. The idea is that even though people use the underground intersection for traveling they could also use it as a new idea of art and how one can observe art and also show another way that people use urban landscaping for personal creativity. I agree with these architects that this is a good idea; to encompass the things people use in their daily lives and make it creative, open, and interesting. One theme I see in this is using what the culture has to create art, many cultures, like in the cave paintings, used everyday life to create art just as these artists are using the T, their common mode of transportation, to create something fascinating that people will see for maybe 100 or more years.