Optic atrophy is my worst nightmare

It's Art History day at my house as I work on an exhibition review paper and studying for my Raphael midterm. I decided that as much fun as it is berating Paul Gauguin and drinking tea from an elephant teapot I wanted a reprieve from work.

Mister teapot

So. Question: If you had to part with either your sight or your hearing, which would you choose? It's such a hard question cause I love music, I need it to ground me whenever I'm doing anything but at the same time I'm an Art History student (seeing is pretty integral to that line of study) plus I love colors and shapes and fashion and everything... so what do I choose? While it may seem obvious but I had to mull about it for a while... I would forgo my hearing in favor of sight. 


To celebrate my favorite sense I decided to make my version of a  collage chock-full of color and fun stuff that's been on my mind the past few days:


In the middle of my Paul Gaguin essay and I'm writing about his work Vision After The Sermon.

Well the red background really reminded me of the Mattise painting... The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room)

And then other morning in Modern Art we were discussing Abstract Expressionism which led us to this painting by Barnett Newman, Vir Herocius Sublimus (Sublime, heroic man)... thoughts?

We also looked at one of the fathers of Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein and his comic vision, Popeye.

I dredge up all these paintings because of their dominant usage of the color red. While from different movements and times they are all united by this simple factor and as a result show cohesion in the evolution of art. I think all can be considered 'art', but that's just me. I know Barnett Newman gets people going because of his minimalist style that borders on the 'my kid could do that' argument. 

The next inspiration came to me in the form of Viktor & Rolf's latest runway presentation for Fall 2011... and hey, whaddaya know there's an overwhelming amount of red in it.

While most designers were playing around in the 20s, 40s, 60s, 70s and 80s (they couldn't make their minds up)... V&R decided to jump back a couple centuries to play in the 1260s or 1300s. Very Medieval Europe and Tudor War of the Roses.

From the Medieval Viktor & Rolf I jumped to one of my highschool art pieces. It's supposed to be a fragmented fingerprint and I thought of it because I think it'd be a badass stained glass window in Notre Dame. I was inspired by stained glass and would have actually liked to make one.

 An example of some of the prep from my workbook. 

Who knows Gerhard Richter re-interpreted one of his color swatch paintings into a window for a church in Cologne, I might get a call one day.

Speaking of churches we plough on to the British artist Chris Ofili, whose exhibition at the Tate Britain remains one of my favorites to date. In one room they had built what looked like a nave of a cathedral and keeping with the religious nature of the room, the paintings were supposed to be versions of the twelve disciples and Christ in a modern interpretation of the Last Supper... cool eh? 

I liked this room so much, I bought a pack of postcards to commemorate it... I have yet to figure out what I'm going to do with them, but for now they brighten my desk.

Back to my whole 'color is my life' vibe I tried on a dress at home in the UK in a store called Warehouse that I loooove, but can't bring myself to shell out the £100 for it. Totally Joseph and the Technicolor Coat. I have a one shoulder dress fetish...

Oh baby, if only... gonna have to wait for it to go one sale in August or something

Finally meet my new favorite image, courtesy of Wallpaper* magazine, one of my new favorite reads. They included this fold out poster which shows a collection of Spring 2011 collections and the color palettes the designers used... nifty idea to create a minimalist, modern, optical illusionistic piece of art.

Oh hai, look who it is. If it isn't Alexander McQueen, whose collection I am creeping at this time (it's fan-freaking-tastic... check out the set and first look here). When the whole set of images is out with proper close ups, you can bet that I'll be back here, squawking like pidgeotto. For now though,

- Life is good


Listening to: A Rolling Stones medley. 
Observations: Why is there still snow on the ground?
Craving: Hydration, I haven't drunk this much water/ tea ever... I don't know what is wrong