Critical Response

Faculty Gallery

I found the Faculty gallery to be interesting though there were many aspects of the art that I didn’t quite understand.  It would have been easier if the artists had their artist statements along with their artwork so that everyone could have a more clear idea what the artist was thinking of at the time that he made the work.  Since I have relatively no art experience it is harder for me to derive my own conclusions when it comes to the world of art, especially when the answer is vague in its own sense.  There was one art work that caught my eye however and it was explained to a group of us by Lynn when we asked her. 

The artwork was the cloud one, though the name I cannot remember well.  I thought it was very interesting, not only because of its size, but when explained to me the meaning was very interesting too.  She explained that on one side it represented what the true cloud is supposed to be.  There is no form, there is no true line surrounding it and on the other side was a more cartoon or drawn aspect of what a cloud is.  The outline was heavy and clearly visible.  It lost most of its texture and the color was different.  Normally we would separate these two, but the clamp was holding it together. 

She explained that in society what is true and how we perceive it can be different then how we represent it and these two things can’t be separated easily anymore.  I think it is an interesting idea when dealing with how society views a real landscape as opposed to art.  Art is an imitation of something and so whether it is a landscape or a portrait it will never truly we exact, but now that notion has been more warped into more of an exaggeration of what something is.  I think I found this the most interesting because today there are so many types of art and some people would say that other types of art aren’t fine art, but in the end society holds them together in a metaphorical clamp as one that cannot be separated because the strength of a society’s mind.