On a rainy day my family and I decided to put this puzzle together. I bought it for my wife for Christmas. It took all day to finally finish the puzzle. I enclosed a link that is really fun to play around with. ENJOY! For everyone who doesn't know who the artist is of the famous Pop art series of Marilyn Monroe, it is Andy Worhol. He did many different combinations of colors not only for Ms. Monroe, but for Elvis and many other famous celeberties as well.
I did a report last semester on the effects on climate change from volcanic eruptions and ran across this picture shot from space courtesy of NASA. I really thought it was terrific how wonderful a natural occurrence that can cause so much disaster can look so wonderful. I believe that it is natural art and this could never be duplicated. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=38985 click on the link to learn more about this eruption that occurred last fall! (Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands)
I have been to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles many times. I recently revisited this museum and viewed the exhibit on Ancient Latin American Art. I have seen this exhibit before but this time I was excited to understand the meanings behind this art collection. I am currently taking a course on Pre-Columbian American Art and this experience was thrilling. I recognized many symbols and icons we discuss in our class.
I took the opportunity to challenge my understanding of the different styles within Mexico. I recognized vessels using the smooth and hollow Comala style of Colima. There were figures that were also the unique pinched style of Ixtlan del Rio, Nayarit. I caught myself staring at these figures with delight and spent about two hours in this tiny section of the museum.
I would recommend taking a trip to a museum to any student. It helped me appreciate the significance of preserving these artifacts. This exhibit sparked my interest in continuing to expand my knowledge of these cultures.
Stephen Colbert, who, along with his fans, is an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating team, and who will be appearing live at the Olympics in Vancouver next week, has revealed a poster designed by legendary graphic artist Shepard Fairey. Stephen encourages fans to download the poster from his site, print it, and "post it all over Vancouver!," though the site notes that you should "observe all local laws and ordinances regarding the posting of bills." [Colbert Nation via Vulture]
This past summer, I went to Paris with my family for vacation. We went to the enormous Louvre which holds some of the most amazing works of art, one being the Mona Lisa. Walking through the corridors, there are signs that point us to the direction of the famous Mona Lisa. We get to it and it is protected by railing and a bulletproof glass. I understand the reason why it is so well protected but it was kind of a let down because we could not get close enough to really appreciate it. We could not appreciate the colors and different hues, the softness of the skin or the different brush strokes. We might as well just look up a picture of it on the internet, although it was a pleasure to be in the presence of the Mona Lisa.
Last semester I had to visit a museum and write a paper on a piece of art that captured me. I had originally intended to write on Gravestone of a Woman and her Attendent from the Getty Villa Museum, however, found that at my trip to LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) I was much more captured by a painting by Julius L. Stewart, called The Baptism. 
The scene of The Baptism is the image of a wealthy living room. Standing before the picture, one is looking as if through the front wall, just as if that were all that were missing. The back wall is lined with built in hard wood bookshelves. On the right extreme of the room is portrayed a beautiful window from which an amazing light is captured as it shines in on the guests and festivities. In the center left of the portrait and portrayed smaller so as to illustrate the distance in the scene, is the baby and supposed subject of the baptism, but not that of the portrait. On the lower right portion of the painting is portrayed the beautiful and frail mother of the infant child. She is uniquely captured as the image of weakness as she reclines, her extremely pale skin evidence of her exhaustion and ill health after the birth of her child. In her right hand she holds a purple lilac, symbolizing love for her child.
I was taken by this picture for several reasons. Firstly because the woman portrayed in it is the most beautiful and striking woman seated reclining in a lounge as the baptism of her newborn child is occurring. She is breathtaking even though she is illustrated as being exhausted and very pale. She is so remarkable looking that the sun, as painted shining in from the window behind her, seems to be back lighting her face and features and illuminating them beyond all else.
Although there are many other people, likely family members and close friends painted in attendance at this baptism, they are all diminished by comparison to this wondrous beauty of a woman who, even sickly after the birth of her child. exudes light, perseverance and humanity. I was struck by her eminent beauty, her pale yellowed cheeks and tired eyes not even able to focus on the events of the baptism, looking downward in subtle sanctity, ill perhaps, but at peace as a result that her beautiful baby would be forever saved as a result of this religious ceremony.
Overall, the painting The Baptism poses an interesting concept, that life delivers to all people, all cultures, all devotions, all religions, the same turns and twists. This is a powerful realization that overwhelms the viewer standing before this painting.
Join the Chaffey College School of Visual, Performing and Communication Arts for a celebration of the arts, culture and entertainment at 5:00 PM on the last Tuesday of each month in the new Center for the Arts building "A". Each month enjoy a lecture, presentation or performance by a faculty member and/or their students from a different VPCA program. A reception with light refreshments sponsored by the Associated Students of Chaffey College will follow each event.
Spring 2010 schedule:
February 23, 5:00pm, CAA-211
The Federal Stimulus Programs of the 1930s: Federal Arts Programs in Southern California
Lecture by Orville Clarke, Jr.
March 30, 5:00pm, CAA-211
Sweeping Away The Fluff: the arts and the economy
Discussion panel led by John Machado looking at the cultural and economic importance of the arts and entertainment in our society.
April 27, 5:00pm, CAA-218
Broadcast & Cinema Student Showcase 2010
hosted by Daniel Jacobo
A 1960 Alberto Giacometti sculpture (Walking Man I) sold for £65 million ($104.3 million) at Sotheby's, setting a record price for a work of art at auction and signaling a potential resurgence in the art market. ... The sale breaks the previous $104.2 million auction record, set six years ago at Sotheby's, for Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait Boy With a Pipe.
wsj.com
