Art at its best?

Monk by the Sea, Caspar Friedrich

Ahh the controversy of Caspar Friedrich. Very odd painting as well. What does it symbolize? What does it mean?

My interpretation of this piece has to deal the church at the time. The Monk is lonley. He has no more followers, no more believers, and instead faces a vicious black sea. Religion has always been a hot topic. After all, the majority of wars has been started over religion, people kill themselves in the name of it, and people kill other innocent people because of it. But what really causes them to do such things? Aren't most religions against killing? Aren't there certain rules or laws that these religions live by?

Back in the 1500's during the mideival era, the Church ran it all. Everyone also went to church. Nowadays, church is something that individuals dread to attend. Friends of mine come up with excuses not to attend it. I know whole families who avoid participating regularly in their religion. Religion is getting weaker, and I believe that is what Caspar Friedrich is trying to show.

Do I agree? Quite frankly, its hard not to. At least in America that is. Everyone has something better to do than to sit in a hall and listen to people speak. Or is it that people are simply lazy? It would fit the sterotype now wouldn't it? Anyways, lets not get sidetracked here.

Now what is religion for? Is it a networking aspect? A place where poeple get to know people? Is it really a place were people can talk to a higher being and ask for forgiveness? Is it a place to learn how to live life? Correctly?

Nontheless, religion still seems to be quite popular still. After all, only 16% of the world population is non-religious according to Adherents.com. For a lot of people, it probably supplies a lot of people with help. Others with hope.

Friedrich's painting is a very interesting prediction. I really am curious whether religion is 'going out of style.'

Galleries of Friedrich's Pantings

So while looking around for more information about Caspar Friedrich, I was able to locate quite a few galleries of some of his pieces:

Art Gallery that sells various paintings:
http://www.art.com/asp/display_artist-asp/_/crid--4489/Caspar_Friedrich.htm

A General Art of Europe page with multiple paintings:
http://www.artofeurope.com/friedrich/index.html

Shares a little bit more about Friedrich & has some paintings:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/friedrich/

More of his paintings:
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/quickSearch.mac/gallery?selLang=English&tmCond=Friedrich+Caspar+David

Check them out. The first actually lets you purchase framed versions of his paintings.

Feeling Art

"The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art."
- Caspar Friedrich

"A painting which does not take its inspiration from the heart is nothing more than futile juggling."
- Caspar Friedrich

So upon stumbling on the piece of Caspar Friedrich, I have decided to try and learn a little bit more about him, his work, and his style.

Through looking at most of his works, you can make an obvious note that Friedrich was a romanticism painter. However, he did romanticism with a bit of a twist.

In most romanticism paintings, the purpose of it is to give the observer the effect of them being where the scene is set. The purpose is for the observer to escape their busy , dusty, miserable life and travel to something peaceful, quiet, and beautiful. Friedrich does continue that style to some extent, but decides to add more emotion than just a simple scenery.

See, in many of Friedrich's paintings, it doesn't show the extremely bright and smiling scene. It can bring forth other feelings as well. Some of his paintings like The Polar Sea show how nature isn't always bright and smiling. It can also be edgy and disappointing, seeing as the wrecked piece of a ship is shown. The ice also delivers a sort of sharpness to the piece rather than smooth, easy and rounded.

Friedrich was born on September 5, 1774, in Germany. He studied at the Copenhagen Academy. In 1798 he moved to Dresden. He became a member of the romantic movement starting with his early drawings of scenery sketched out in pencil. As soon as he had gotten a feeling for the landscape, he began to add emotion to his paintings.

If you would like to learn more about Caspar Friedrich, here is a link that might be able to help:
http://cgfa.floridaimaging.com/friedric/friedrich_bio.htm

My Art Journal (Feb.19, Feb. 20)

So yesterday I began an Art Journal and have decided to do 1 entry a day. Below are my two entries.


This is my first entry. I really couldn't think of anything, so I began drawing a bunch of lines in one place and eventually made on big continuous one. I think that I will start using more black to where the lines are, almost like a disease is infecting all of these pretty colors.
[NOTE: It still isn't finished, so you can give suggestions as how I could make it better!]


So if you can't tell what it is suppose to be shaped like, its supposed to be a Hospital Cross. I tried to make the right side look like a circuit board while the left is a bunch of dollar bills.

To kind of reflect, I really like the idea of just spending even half an hour everyday just pulling out my art journal and just doing something. I mean, sure it may be not something that Picasso would make or anything, but its something. At first, I was a little apprehensive. I wasn't so sure whether it would be worth it, whether it would really benefit me. But even after two days I'm already seeing this activity will have some positive effects.

Resources

Pigments through the Ages: http://webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/early.html

The Bug that changed History: http://www.gcrg.org/bqr/8-2/bug.htm

History of Pigments: http://www.multimediaarts.com/watercolors/colrhist.htm

Synthetic Inorganic Pigments: http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/pigmt1b.html

Egg Tempera: http://www.watercolorpainting.com/eggtempera.htm

Egg Tempera Paintings: http://www.lindapaul.com/about_egg_tempera.htm

Le Artists!

So today I was roaming around the internets and I found an artist I was completely blown away by. His name is Caspar David Friedrich and when I first saw this painting, I was truly blown away. The idea of being on top of the world. I really have only felt that once before on top of a mountain in New Mexico. You feel like you are let go, that nothing matters. Thats what this painting reminded me at first. I'm still curious about where it was based off of, because it seems like the background wouldn't be part of a sea. Maybe it is simply the background of some mountains. I especially appreciate how the painting has two parts, the man, and nature. The man is triumphant. He has reached a high point in his life. However, the nature that accompanies him is beautiful. Its what everyone strives for. Something that accompanies your life whilst being triumphant or successful.

Other artists I plan to look at are J.M.W. Turner and John Constable.

If you really like the painting and want to give an interpretation, critique, OR would like to suggest to me a certain artist to look at, feel free!

Textile Manufacturing

So lately I've been researching textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution, and quite a number of links popped up. So I figured I'd share them!

So if you are looking for a chronology of textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution, here is a great place to start. It provides succinct information and goes even more in depth for many of the innovations.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blindustrialrevolutiontextiles.htm

This website provided a very detailed chronology of textile manufacturing. However, it doesn't supply you with the ability to really look into a certain invention.
http://www.saburchill.com/history/events/022.html

It takes one word to describe this website: Cotton. I mean this site is cotton CRAZY! Who knew you could know so much about cotton? Anyways, this website provides an extremely detailed timeline of cotton and also explains the effects of the industrial revolution in England.
http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/chrono1.html

Some questions that I still have are:
* How is it possible for these machines to really work without a computer or anything? I mean, especially the Jacquard loom. Sure, it can weave patterns out of silk, but how could you have a machine do that?
* Why did people accept such low wages and such miserable living conditions? Haven't they heard of a revolt?
* If I were to compare a person of today and a person from that time, whom would have a more developed personality? Which one would be considered stronger? Why?
* Who were the ones that made factories? Was it private investors / rich folk? Or was it England?

The Purpose of this Blog

Welcome to the Information Gage. The purpose of this blog will be to list information based on Art. I mean, everything you can think about with art. How art is made, how the materials are created, how history effects art, how good I am at creating art. All of this, and more! Granted, I may throw my own opinion into there a lil' bit, but hopefully you won't mind...