Day 30 – Yes, I Do Like Art

Today is the last day of my Art Month of the Coffee Bean Dreams Project. In case you missed the beginning posts, my plan is to spend each month focusing on a different subject, and art was the first topic. In my initial post about art, I asked the question of whether I even like art. (Read it here: http://www.coffeebeandreams.blogspot.com/2014/05/day-1-do-i-even-like-art.html). I talked about how I’ve always listed “art” as one of my hobbies because I felt that you were supposed to do that, but I wasn’t sure if I really actually enjoyed art.

After spending a month researching just a tiny bit of art over morning coffee, I’ve learned three things. First of all, I do like art. I wouldn’t call myself an expert in any particular area or type of art, and I probably would not impress anyone with my knowledge of anything artistic. However, I have enjoyed spending this month learning new things about I never knew about paintings, different kinds of ancient art, and photography. Which brings me to my second revelation: learning about art is much more enjoyable when you’re learning because you want to and not because you have to for school or something like that. (cue snarky “thanks, Captain Obvious” comment). And third: it’s really fun to discuss art with friends who are also interested in it. I’ve had several people give me their thoughts and opinions on my blog posts over the last month, both commenting on what I wrote and also suggesting art that I might find interesting. This interactive learning has been what really sealed the deal for me. I found that art was so much more enjoyable when I was comparing my thoughts with friends on an honest level rather than trying to impress someone with my interest in or knowledge of art.

I tried to decided today what my favorite piece of art was out of the ones I’ve looked at this month. I don’t know if I can really pick one, but I will say I really enjoyed learning about the Impressionist paintings. I’ve always had a hard time trying to learn about painting, but reading about the Impressionists was interesting to me and I found a lot of paintings I really liked.

So that’s it for Art Month… stay tuned tomorrow for the next 30 day topic. As a final bonus, here’s a painting by Max Beckmann that I really like, Quappi in a Pink Sweater. I’ve had a print of this for years and I love it!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 22 – One Shape Does Not Fit All!

I’m actually writing my blog early in the day today! Our schedule has been all over the place (yup, thanks to the move), so I decided to take advantage of a free moment in the morning to write. Also, sadly, I was unable to have any coffee this morning since our coffee pot was packed away already and I couldn’t sneak out to buy some. So today’s blog is brought to you by some tea I managed to scrounge up and drink out of a Styrofoam cup.

Today will probably be my last day on the subject of Greek Pottery, but I did not want to move on until I discussed the shapes a little bit. Ancient Greek Vases were not “one shape fits all.” As the Metropolitan Museum’s Article yesterday noted, “Painted vases were often made in specific shapes for specific daily uses.” (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vase/hd_vase.htm). I also found some information on vase shapes from an online Reed College study guide. (http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/studyguides/vases/intro-types.html). (No Wikipedia today, either! Go me!)

Examples of some different vase shapes and their uses are amphora (transporting food and wine), kanthoros or kylix (drinking water), lekythos (pouring libations), loutrophoros (carrying water for a bridal bath), and albastron (a tiny vase that could be tied to the wrist for carrying perfumes and oils). As you can see, the vase shapes are a mix of shapes for everyday uses and shapes for special or ritual occasions. This is a picture I found on Reed’s website that shows some of the different shapes:

Again, the complexity of these ancient traditions fascinates me. I’m not sure I can think of something similar today. In our culture, are there really any groups of widely accepted shapes for different purposes? The only thing I could really come up with is that we have different shapes of wine glasses for red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, etc. That doesn’t even come close to the complexity of the Greek Vase shapes. Am I forgetting something? Can you think of an analogous example in our lives today?

Finally, just because, here’s another picture of a Greek vase. This is an amphora shaped jar:

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 21 – Artists at Work: How the Ancient Greeks Made Pottery

So, I wrote briefly about the Orientalizing style yesterday, and while there is certainly much more I could research and write about that style, I want to go ahead and move on to Black and Red Vase Painting. When I looked at an overview of the Greek Styles of Vase Painting, this was my favorite. (Also, I’m getting closer to the end of the 30 days of the “Art” portion of my Coffee Bean Dreams Project, so I don’t want to get too bogged down on any one thing. I might still check out one more area of art before moving on to the next 30 Day Topic!)

Since I found an article on the Metropolitan Museum’s website about black and red figure techniques (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vase/hd_vase.htm), I decided to take a break from Wikipedia. (True Academics, rejoice!). I liked the article from the Met Museum a lot because it also actually described the process of making the pot. First, it was shaped on a wheel, and if it was a large enough pot it was made in sections. Once the sections had dried they were assembled with clay in liquid form (known as a slip), and then finally the handles were added. To make black figure vases, the figures were applied with a slip that turned black during firing the pots. Red figure vases were the opposite: the figures remained the color of the clay pot while the background was filled with a slip that turned black. The black figure style came first and was gradually replaced by the red figure style as the ancient potters realized the better design possibilities with the red figure technique.

After the pots were shaped and assembled, and the designs applied or filled in, the pots went through a three stage firing process: the first stage, oxidizing, allowed air into the kiln and turned the pot the color of clay; the second stage introduced green wood which reduced the oxygen supply and turned the pot black; and in the third stage more air was allowed in the kiln again which caused glossed areas to remain black but the rest of the pot to turn back to orange.

So, I don’t know if others find the pot-making process itself as fascinating as I do, but for some reason the idea of making pots has always appealed to me. Maybe I should try taking a pottery class one of these days- something about the idea of feeling the wet clay in your hands and then seeing it turn into beautiful vase just seem so wholesome and satisfying. I’ve never really considered myself an artist, but I think I could very much get into making pottery. (How that pottery would actually look is another story, but, you know…)

Ok, I’m off to do more moving related tasks (cannot wait for this weekend for the move to be over!!), but I’ll leave you with a few examples of red and black figure vases from the Met’s website. Notice the many different shapes of the vases!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 20 – Lions and Sphinxes and Griffins, Oh My!

Next up in Greek Vase Painting is the Orientalizing Style. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_of_ancient_Greece; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalizing_period). In the 8^th and 7^th Centuries B.C., the cultural mix in the Aegean and Mediterranean resulted in the Orientalizing style, which portrayed both real and mythological animals- such as lions, griffins, and sphinxes. You’re likely familiar with sphinxes thanks to the well-known Great Sphinx. (Just in case you’ve forgotten, sphinxes are mythical creatures with the head of a human and body of a lion). But, if like me, you’ve never heard of a griffin, you’ll be interested to know that it has the body, trail, and back legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and its front feet are eagle talons. Like this:

I really love the mythological creatures displayed in Greek art. It’s great that art allows the imagination to be portrayed in a physical form. These Greek vases give life to otherwise non-existent creatures, and I think that’s exciting to see! Here’s an example of one of these vases:

Ok, although there is definitely much more to say about the Orientalizing Style, that’s all for today. Short and sweet, but we’re moving this weekend and trying to get a move organized while taking care of a two month old is no joke. And we even have movers doing most of the work! I don’t know how people who don’t have movers do it… I’m very lucky! The next few days might all be bite sized blogs! J

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 18 – Discovering History through Art

This morning I switched gears a bit to look into another ancient culture’s art – Ancient Greece. You may remember Doc Rose, who recommended impressionist painting to me. She mentioned that I should take a look at Ancient Greek vases because of the wide variety of shapes and techniques. After reading the Wikipedia page on Ancient Greek Pottery (I know, I know, Wikipedia again!), I can verify that this is definitely the case! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_of_ancient_Greece#Red_figure). The development of Greek vase painting is traced through several different styles: protogeometric, geometric, orientalizing, black figure, red figure, white ground technique, and the Hellenistic Period. Are your eyes glazed over yet?!? This is a lot to digest, and I want to spend the next few days looking at the different styles. The black and red figure style looks particularly interesting- check out this example I found on the Metropolitan Museum’s website:

Also interesting: the page mentions that, because pottery is relatively durable, the art on ancient Greek pottery has had a disproportionately large influence on modern understanding of ancient Greek society. This fascinates me- we know much of what we know about the ancient Greeks because of one of their art forms. I feel that art is often considered to be an unnecessary side pursuit in society. I admit I’ve rolled my eyes at art and the need to be “cultured” more often than once. But in the case if the Ancient Greeks, their art served quite a useful purpose – since centuries upon centuries later we can learn about their lives and history through that art. I think that’s pretty cool, don’t you?

Finally, before I sign off today - Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to all of the brave men and women who have given their lives serving in the U.S. Military.

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 17 – Art for the Dead

Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about the tomb of Khonsu, another of the Egyptian tombs I’ve been looking at. (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/srvt/hd_srvt.htm). Khonsu was part of a crew of artisans who carved and decorated royal tombs in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. What a job to put on your résumé, right? These artisans put an enormous amount of time and effort into creating the Pharaohs’ tombs, but they also used their talents to create their own (more modest) tombs.

Khonsu had two anthropoid coffins prepared for him (see below). (Apparently, the term “anthropoid coffin” refers to a coffin in the shape of a human). Khonsu’s coffins were covered with various magical symbols and texts. As you can see from the picture, the details are quite elaborate.

Khonsu’s tomb also contained shawabtis – little figurines which would substitute for Khonsu if he were called upon to perform manual labor in the afterlife. (See an example, below. Also, can we just pause here for a moment and say, it would be awesome if I could get some shawabtis to take care of things for me in this life?)

There was obviously a lot of attention to detail put into these coffins and they are, I think, very beautiful. And this was not even the coffin of royalty. Take a look below at the death mask of the famous King Tut. This beautiful masterpiece is made of gold, colored glass, and semiprecious stones. (http://wysinger.homestead.com/kingtutankhamun5.html)

It’s kind of amazing how much work was put into items that were only going to be buried in a tomb. For the Ancient Egyptians, who had strong beliefs regarding the afterlife, I guess it makes sense. I’m glad that these works of art finally made it out of the tombs and into museums so we can enjoy them today. I bet the individuals who were buried with these items would have been appalled, however, to know the eventual fate of their tombs’ treasures! Is it disrespectful that we now use these treasures for our own artistic gain? It might seem silly, but who are we to say that Khonsu doesn’t still need his shawabtis to help him with manual labor in the afterlife? I suppose the answer to that is that, as our understanding of the world evolves, it’s pretty unlikely that the kind of afterlife that Khonsu anticipated exists, and these treasures serve a better purpose being used for the education and enjoyment of modern people. What do you think?

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 15 – Egyptian Tombs

I didn’t have much more time to blog today. My family was still in town and then I had to take Baby Girl for her two month shots. She was not happy about that, and was obviously not feeling well afterwards. However, she finally took a nap and when she woke up seems to be feeling better. I’m just crossing my fingers that she doesn’t get a fever – I’m pretty much terrified of her getting a fever!

Even though this blog is going to be short again today, I just wanted to talk a little more about the Egyptian tombs I’ve been reading about during my coffee time. It’s really interesting to me that the Egyptians spent so much time and so many resources on burying people. The Metropolitan Museum’s website discusses three different tombs which were excavated in Egypt by an expedition of the Metropolitan’s Department of Egyptian Art. The tombs belonged to Wah, Hatnofer, and Khonsu. I’ll be writing more about these tombs and searching for others over the next few days. I have to say, I do love ancient art like this. It’s all got such a haunting, otherworldly feel. Perhaps it’s because the Egyptians were decorating for people who had died, or perhaps it’s because these pieces are just so very, very old! Either way, I’m looking forward to more learning over the weekend, and to reinvigorating my discovery of art. In the meantime, here’s a vignette from a coffin lid, from sometime around 1279-1213 B.C.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone- and check in for blog updates if you have a chance!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 14 – Coming Soon - but not today - Egyptian Art.

So, this morning, I was trying to think of a different direction to go in learning about art. I tried to think about experiences I have really enjoyed at museums, and I remembered a really nice exhibit I once saw about the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Ancient art, and Ancient Egyptian art in particular, really fascinates me.

I looked for Egyptian art on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website, and found some information on Egyptian tombs that I think might be a good place to start. (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/egtb/hd_egtb.htm). However, I have family in town and have had a long day, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow or this weekend for a full blog on this type of art. I’m too tired to write much right now. In the meantime, here’s an Egyptian painted limestone on which to feast your eyes. More soon!

Xoxo,

Diana