Art

Art in Boise
A visit to an Art museum, for me and many others is a time squandering event. Not that we don’t think it’s useful, but we have other things we would rather be doing. I don’t relish standing next to pseudo Art lovers, oozing in false appreciation.
Rather then standing in a room filled with different works of Art I find it easier to take Professor’s advice and focus on one. Now here is something that I can do, take in one Painting, think on it, and absorb it.
The Boise Art Museum attempts to be user friendly, but I have always found the building overwhelming. Feeling nervous, I go forth.
Lines of paintings and odd sculptures fill my eyes. I seek out something that I can relate to.
I am a lover of faces, if I could paint, I would paint faces. The art that I am drawn to is scheduled for 2007. The artist’s name is Chuck Close. Surviving a spinal blood clot in 1988 resulted in quadriplegia. Unable to continue painting with his hands, he makes brush strokes by gripping a paint brush in his teeth. Chuck Close is associated with a style of painting called photorealism.
Because Art has fads as much as anything else, the style of painting came as an alternate to minimalism. Photorealism is more realistic in appearance, where as minimalists use the smallest amount of shape or form to depict an object.
A person approaches the painting thinking it is a photograph with large pixels, but the closer you get the more you see that it is a painting made up of tiny squares. Each square is another tiny painting. The result is fantastic. I like looking at the painting far away first, and then I creep up on it slowly watching the painting change to tiny squares. I hope no one is watching me do this, I would feel ridiculous.
The face that he paints is called Lyle. Lyle’s face is an artist’s face full of youthful reflection. Mr. Close caught his expression of impatient regard. An artist taking a picture of a fellow artist. I have looked at some of Lyle Ashton Harris’ work as a result of discovering Chuck Close.
The totally great thing about this assignment is I got out and really looked at art. Wherever I was I was looking, taking in, pondering what I saw from all aspects. Some of us see art in everything, but don’t actually look at man made created art. I would be in that category, and I am thankful for the chance to take a second look.
In the movie, “Harriet the Spy” The nanny is taking the children out on an art appreciation quest. She tells them, “Most things are worth a second look.” I would have to agree with her.



Vocabulary Terms
Photorealism--A style of painting in which an image is created in such exact detail that it looks like a photograph; uses everyday subject matter, and often is larger than life.
Representational--Depicts an object in nature in recognizable form.
Grisaille--A painting technique using only grey tints.
Pointillism--A painting technique in which a white background is covered with tiny dots of pure color that fuse when seen from a distance producing a luminous visual effect.
Minimalism--A style of art in which the least possible amount of form shapes, colors, or lines are used to reduce the concept or idea to its simplest form (geometric shapes, progressions).
Impressionism--A movement in painting in which the emphasis on light and color, loose brush strokes, ordinary subject matter; creates the "impression" of a moment in time.