Art 451-Caitlin Pupich

For this post, I wanted to explain the inspiration from two sources that drove my last image. The first I have referenced before, The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli, and the second is the Netflix documentary film Take Your Pills. The film explores the increased need and distribution of Adderall and other prescription drugs that were developed to treat people with ADHD. While treatment is the primary use, its over prescription has led to wide use of the drug for other purposes.  Legal controversy over athletes using this drug, as well as a more hidden controversy between employees and students, have led to many ethical discussions of its use. Furthermore, while there are people who truly need the drug, the quickly decreasing attention span of the common public has greatly blurred the lines between when someone needs treatment or not. What I wanted to look at from this documentary was the fact that so many employees and students are finding illegal means of getting this drug beca...

For this week, since I am using art from another culture and another time to compare my own work, I wanted to look at what is shared about art across time and space, and in turn what has changed. Overall, this research clearly shows that images and art are something universal, and have many universal elements to them. While the style of the images and the actual content (eg. Carts vs. Cars) may change, they are still examining the same idea or overall theme as they were from the first cave drawings. This is an interesting idea that ties all humans across time and space together in a very interesting way. Looking at art in the holistic form  really shows the deep and fascinating connections of the human mind and challenges the individualistic modern themes in U.S. culture today. In a way, it proves that art can transcend differences in things such as ideas, belief, technology, and essentially tie back to the core of the subject: humans as a whole and how they see the world, in a way...

image credit: Tran osuke   For this week, I researched on the traditional Ukiyo-e shop and what they looked like. I found very little information on this, but I did find an image of a replica of an Ukiyo-e shop in the Edo-Tokyo Museum. This showed multiple ways in which the work could be displayed in the shops: on flat surfaces, hung among strings, and then some were even hung alone. While this sort of cluttered display to show as many things as possible is normal to us today, it is fascinating that our ideas of mass production and how that is displayed derive from shops like this. Furthermore, I like the fact that it shows how the same images have different designs and colors and are printed many times, emphasizing the devaluation of each piece during this time (which is how it became affordable to the middle class). For my own display, I chose to replicate the pictures hung on strings. Although they are all beautiful prints, they are forced together and forgotten because ...

Brief History: Kabuki, which was a surprising and eccentric style of theater that started in the Edo period of Japan, was first initiated with performances by women actresses dressing as both men and woman. It started with one woman, Izumo no Okuni, who began theatrical dance performances in the streets Kyoto (which was the capital of Japan before rule moved to Edo, now known as Tokyo, during the Edo period). As her performance grew in popularity, the dance was brought all the way up to the imperial court, where it became a larger performance of women. This grew to be very popular, and even a way to understand pop culture, such as its display of the latest trends in fashion, but eventually the women's Kabuki was banned for being too erotic. During the "golden age" of the Edo period, where many arts and entertainment thrived, a new type of Kabuki emerged where only men acted, playing the roles of both men and women with masks over their face. This became extremely popula...

This week, I chose to take a more scientific approach to understanding culture and sparking inspiration. I found this in the novel "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli. I chose to include this because I have personally always had a particular interest in time, but also time, as well as space, is one of the biggest factors in the ideas and processes that shape my project compared that of the Ukiyo-e prints. As Rovelli points out, time and heat are some of the only things that are irreversible (once time passes, you cannot go back-once something has been burned it cannot be reversed). That is central to the project: it is comparing a practice from the past, both in content and the creation process, to what it has become now. For example, I can use a laser engraver in order to easily form images on a block to print, where Ukiyo-e prints were hand carved into the block. It is this linearity of time that makes this project so interesting-once we have discovered the "future...

I was recently introduced to a type of music that was initially created as a commentary, and often criticism, of modern society, and in particular, consumer and capitalistic society.  While my project is not focused around sound, this provided a very interesting way of taking modern content in advertisements (such as this song based around the advertisements and claims of Avon products), and creating something very atmospheric that still clearly portrays the message. It is also framing this idea in a way that is strange and unexpected, creating a conversation about not only the topic, but also the music. One of the most powerful and recognizable characteristics of this style and music is that it manages to create a specific mood without necessarily spelling it out, something I also hope to accomplish with my work. Overall, I found this as inspiration for different ways that I can portray my ideas and what is clearer/more obstructed to the audience. Furthermore, if I do decide to w...

Often times when I come to a creative block, I like to look at Pinterest for inspiration. Because much of the work is smaller artists and people's everyday drawings or work, it often reminds me of common themes and ideas that are prominent in modern society, and it also provides a lot of content and ideas that are more abstract and impressionistic- a type of art that developed after Ukiyo-e, but actually took a lot of inspiration from the classic Japanese work. This is a closer example to the drawings and work that I create than the previous week's research that was a more classic Ukiyo-e design. Here are some examples of the work I found:

The work of Keiji Shinohara uses the same idea and a similar style to that of the classic Ukiyo-e painting, but adds a modern twist and the interpretation from the artist. The works are very beautiful and most of them also use the bright colors characteristic of Ukiyo-e. Although his style is a more classic view of the art Ukiyo-e prints than what I am working on, his work provides interesting gradients and subject matter to provide inspiration for my own work.  Here is a link to an archive of the prints.

https://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/way-of-life/american-culture/ This website is for exchange students and it shows some of the main cultural values and norms to expect in everyday life of the U.S. Daniel Bell on the Post-Industrial Society http://neamathisi.com/new-learning/chapter-3-learning-for-work/daniel-bell-on-the-post-industrial-society Changes that have happened in the post industria Properties that stood out ot me and what I want to portray in my project: Property and education: The traditional mode of gaining place and privilege in the society was through inheritance—of a family farm, a family business, or a family occupation … Today education has become the basis of social mobility, especially with the expansion of professional and technical jobs, and even entrepreneurship requires a higher-education background. . Financial capital and human capital … In economic theory, until only the past thirty or so years, capital was regarded principally...

This week, I wanted to do research on everyday life in the Edo period of Japan. In order to understand how they portrayed life in through the art, I first have to understand their life. If I want to be able translate that into our reality in America hundreds of years later, I have to understand these basic connections between the reality of everyday life and the art that was meant to depict everyday life. Here are some of the sources I read about everyday life during the Edo period in. I combined this to research I conducted while I was in Japan. http://www.ushistory.org/civ/10e.asp  http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/background-information/edo-period-1615-1868-culture-and-lifestyle https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/distribution-by-gender/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D Here are some Observations to Consider (the rest are mentioned below): Edo, which is now known as Tokyo, was not the capital at th...

This week I just did research on the techniques for printing multiple layers/colors (reduction woodblock printing).  Here are a few of the helpful resources I found: Basic 3 -block technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-L4gTmX8JQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwX-ft4KbGs Shows how to carve and layer a print as well as mix incs to make different colors--darkest linework last. http://amyguadagnoli.com/handout.pdf https://www.andrearich.com/process While all of these show you how to carve all of the blocks using the ink of the first print, I plan instead on creating each of my drawings with multiple layers so that the laser engraver will print every color block separately on the mounted linoleum woodblocks.

This selection of work depicts the four seasons of Japan, and other images, through modern woodblock printing. It provides some interesting techniques that are similar, but also different, to the classic Ukiyo-e woodblock prints.  It also shows different ways to use color for woodblock printing. Furthermore, the prints display more realistic images and distinct lines that differ from the classic form. Overall, it provides new ideas on how woodblock printing can be portrayed and achieved. Here is a link to the video