Katharina Grosse

A Modern Artist from Berlin

            I went online and looked up a few websites and two words that come to mind are “WOW!’ and “Trippy”.  What is going on in her head?  The funny thing is that I like what she produces.  She uses an industrial paint sprayer and expresses herself as kind of a rebel towards “fine art”.  She paints on whatever she wants.  She paints on walls, floors, ceilings, beds, books and natural materials like rocks and dirt.  I really got a sense of emotion with her choice of colors.  Like her “Hello Little Butterfly…” it is bright and cheerful with yellows and purples and blues.  It was like a butterfly got its wings in some paint and was fluttering chaotically to try to get it off, meanwhile it was making beautiful marks all over the walls.  The colors in her work all run/bleed together and really give a sense of movement.  Her choice in colors seems to really evoke emotions.  Somehow she is getting her opinions expressed through the colors she uses.  You can tell if she is mad or if she finds beauty in something. Some of her works give me a feel of a flood of colors rushing into a room, like it is coming right at me and I better move and get out of the way or else I will be colored myself.  Obviously she has an effect on lots of viewers as I noticed she has exhibits all over the place and even at our Denver Art Museum.  Personally, I would love to see her work in person.  I have a feeling seeing pictures online doesn’t quite justify her work.  It may sound silly, but I find her to be a brave artist to be okay to paint all over things as she does.  It is crazy and impulsive to me.  As amateur artist I still feel confined in creating “fine art”.  She really goes outside of the box.   I don’t know that I would ever go her route, but she does give me a sense of freedom to do whatever inspires me.

This is Katharina all decked out creating her art.

This is absolutely breath taking.  This is
the room where it feels like the colors are
flooding/rushing into the room.

I couldn't just pick 6

I had so much fun exploring with my camera.  I have a new hobby now.  Values can make or break a picture and can really create emotions and give interesting perspectives. However, I chose six of my photographs that I was really pleased with and I numbered them in their caption.

The Power of Value

The vertical lines pull you down.
I love this composition of soft light and
extreme darkness.  You can almost feel the
breeze coming through the curtain.
This sets a mood of tranquility. 

1.
This shadow created a beautiful silhouette.  There
are strong horizontal lines and diaganol lines
that make this compostion work.  Even the contrasting
values make it balanced. 
. 

The outlining is so strong as well as the repetition of rows.
From this angle the diagonol lines change the shape of the the
actual square of the photo givng a feeling of continuance. 
There is a nice blend of grays, whites and blacks.



2.
This composition feels balanced in which  the two focal points
play off one another.  The low-key value in the
background  and the center of the flowers really compliment
the high-value of the petals.

3.
I love the gradation of value and the feel that the dark shadows are endless holes.  There are
also great repetitious lines, both vertical and horizontal. My eyes
start at the light values at the bottom and the move all the way up to the top and curve
to the left into  dark pits of the unknown.

4.
The highlighting brings such a delicacy to this petunia, yet the dark defined
veins that run through it signifies strength to survive in its elements.  the negative space
of dark value really makes the flower stand out as the focal point.

5.
This is a wonderful example of contrast between lights and darks
as well as textures of smooth and rough, yet ,this image gives
me a feeling of balance.  the dark values cover one side and the
light values cover the other side.  There is also a great mixture of
values throughout the photo too.

I felt like a detective when I was playing with the values. I didn't notice while I was taking the picture that there
was a hidden message on the house. I believe is says, "HOME GROWN".
Working with black and white photographs really made me focus on the  details
which I normally wouldn't have noticed necessarily in color

From this angle the horizontal lines go from dark values to light values
from left to right.  There several shifts of directions going on here and the varying
values help guide the eye in movement going from up and down and side to side.



There is a nice balance between low-key and high-key value. I love the
vertical lines that join with the diagonal lines and the dark value space in between
really emphasizes the directions and controls how the eye will look at the composition.



6.
There is a beautiful spiral of repetition between lights and darks.
It looks like a snail's shell. The center of the stairs is highlighted and breaks
away to gradation in values and then goes back into highlights again.



Some of Joseph Albers's Artwork

Joseph Albers

"Homage to the Square"

"Homage to the Square"

Joseph Albers

JOSEPH ALBERS


He was an artist originally from Germany who came to America during WWII. At the art school he attended in Bauhaus, Germany he was introduced to the beginnings of “Abstract” Art. He brought his great perspective with him and taught art in North Carolina and then at Yale University.

He has always loved using geometric shapes, lines and color in his art. He used them in such a way in his composition that he could create an illusion of how the picture looked to the eye versus how the art really was done. He was truly the master at understanding colors and knew how to place the correct colors together to give the shapes new direction and meaning. He realized that color influences the composition and can affect the space around the shape. He was able to give his geometric shapes a dimensional look by just figuring out what colors to use together.
Here are a few websites on Joseph Albers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/02/19/GA2010021902645.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110336/albers.htm
http://design101.tumblr.com/