Blog Entry # 5

The Interior Designer Gahban O' Keeffe uses very simple but elegant design. In his work he uses a lot of natural materials, which is healthy for our environment. For example, if he uses bamboo for a furniture piece this is much more resourceful than oak, since bamboo is able to reproduce itself in such a short amount of time. He also spends a lot of time on detail and making things look extravagant. For example, in this picture the canopy that comes over the bed makes the bed look "rich" or more expensive that it would with out it. O' Keeffe also uses many different kinds of fabrics in his work. Sometimes he uses fabric in places that a non interior designer would think. In the second picture we see that he uses fabric on the walls. The walls are covered in leather and gives unique texture to the room. What impresses me most about O' Keeffe is that he can mix and match different styles and make them all come together in a room. Usually people would stick with only style like country or contemporary and decorate accordingly. In the third picture there is an example of this. The back wall is very contemporary with the square blocks, and the red arm chairs are more formal or old word style. This interior designer uses dominance in a unique but sensible way. He seems to have one focus point in a room and tries to make that point stand out as much as possible. For instance, in the fourth picture the dominant object is the bathtub. Even tho the tub is not big or close to us in the picture it is outlined by panels of fabric. O' Keeffe addressed human form in an unusual way. In most of his rooms his the elements are very tall, whether it be fabric or window treatments. You would tend to think that one may be intimidated by this but this designer also has things at a human level. For example, the bed in the first picture has a very big canopy, but the things that surround the bed are normal height for humans. After looking at his work I have been realized that you can mix and match many different kinds of style and use fabrics in a different way and the design will still look complete. The color that O' Keeffee uses are earth tones. He uses a lot of greens and beige and a few colors that stand out and make the other colors "pop". I like this idea because not every color takes over, but there are a few small pops of color that add great interest to a room. In the last picture you notice that the walls are a golden color, along with the couch, and in the middle of the room there is a red ottoman with oranges. This really makes everything pop and stand out.

Image Essay # 9

Recently in class we have been talking about a childhood memory. This is a picture of a boy who is maybe playing baseball with his dad for the first time. He maybe feeling a variety of emotions. He may be excited because he is learning how to play a new sport, he may also be sacred because the ball is coming towards him. Also with this project we have been talking about using multiple elements that we have already learned and incorporate them in the picture as well. One of the very first things we talked about in class was dominance. In this picture the dominate object was the baseball bat. Also we talked about foreground, middle ground, and background. The foreground in this picture is multiple things. First off the boy with his bat, secondly the baseball, and then the boys father. In the middle ground you see either the boys mother or possibly his older sister. Since she is in the middle ground she is blurry and cannot see her as well, and the details and the textures are not as dominate. In the background we see the trees and bushes. These too are blurred, more so than the women in the middle ground. You can see that the background is trees and bushes but you cannot pick out each leaf or each branch on the trees. I think this is a very good example of all of the things we are talking about this week.

Image Essay # 8

This is an example of figure ground reversal. Figure ground reversal is when a visual illusion where perception alternates between two possibilities. A pair of shapes, either of which taken alone would be seen as an object of some kind, share a common border-line. What happens then is when joined, each shape competes with the other. I think this picture is a very good example of this. The first thing I notice when I looked at this picture is that there were a bunch of swans juxtaposed in a circular motion. Then I looked again I noticed that between the swans in the front that the black color is actually another shape of a swan. This also goes with the idea of Gestalt. When we first look at this picture we want to know what is going on and make sense of it. This picture also contains many principles of gestalt, such as containment as seen with all of the swans flying in a circle. It also has repetition because the entire image is made of the same type of bird, swans. And lastly continuity as seen by a fluid connection between all of the parts in the composition. I like the fact that an artist can use multiple aspects of art in one piece and still create something that is relaxing to look at makes sense. One may think that if an artist was to use multiple techniques that a picture would be confusing and uneasy to look at.