Music

Line Art

Portraits

Sonya Rapoport

Sonya Rapoport was born on October 6, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts. She has studied a variety of topics at a variety of schools. Rapoport first began attending classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Later, she studied at the Massachusetts College of Art for two years. She later ended up earning a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Boston University. After this, Rapoport received a B.A. in Labor Economics from New York University, studied figurative art and oil painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C., and finally got a master’s degree in art from the University of California, Berkeley. Her art has been shown around the world from Brazil to France. Her earlier work in painting seems to explore the abstracted form of the human figure. In the 1970’s her work shifted and she became more interested in electronic media. She is a multi-media artist, but became known for her influential work in the realm of computer based art.

Her work has a strong element of both natural and social sciences. Rapoport’s background in Biology is very evident throughout many of here pieces. She adds a more personal aspect to science and technology. Her work adopts pieces of modern science and technology and through her work, attempts to make these concepts for relevant, accessible, and personal. There are strong interdisciplinary themes in Rapoport’s work. One of her largest projects entitled Objects On My Dresser shows images of twenty-nine objects from her dresser which were then paired with twenty-nine other images that were chosen based on both psychological and cultural associations drawn by Rapoport. She first evaluated the objects more objectively looking at shape, color, monetary values. The artist then became to make more emotional responses to said objects. The work also explored the ideas of metaphors and word-associations.

Aesthetically, I was very drawn to the organized feel of Sonya Rapoport’s work. In particular, Objects On My Dresser feels as if one is looking at a somewhat complex map based on hidden meanings and secret codes. However, the piece also has a somewhat more personal feel with the clumsily placed labels, and images of varying sizes. Her piece Periodic Table of the Elements again successfully fuses a more scientific, and organized idea with more personal feeling pictures and associations. Many of Rapoport’s pieces have this balanced feeling of objective and subjective which is why I feel so drawn to many of her works. The layout of these pieces feel carefully calculated and premeditated, but there is an overarching emotive feeling that helps to keep the viewer interest and connect him/her to the piece.

Works Cited

http://users.lmi.net/sonyarap/

http://sonyarapartblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/sonya-rapoport/objects-on-my-dresser-phase-4-exhibition-in-print-1981

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/sonya-rapoport/objects-on-my-dresser-phase-4-exhibition-in-print-1981#supersized-artistPaintings-288804

Digital Space

Celebrity Mash-Up

Maggie Taylor

Maggie Taylor is an artist who was born in 1961 in Cleveland, Ohio. However, Taylor is now living in Gainesville, Florida. She lives with her husband, Jerry Uelsmann, who is a photographer known for using darkroom techniques to create somewhat surreal pieces as well. Maggie Taylor also began her art career as a still-life photographer. She has worked with photography for over ten years. However, her current work primarily consists of digital images. Taylor creates these digital pieces by using a flatbed scanner to scan objects onto a computer. She then manipulates the objects to create composite digital images. She works with many different kinds of objects including vintage toys, sea shells, feathers, dolls, and much more. She finds these artifacts everywhere from online auctions and flea markets, to her own backyard.

Taylor’s work has a strong theatrical overtone. The subjects the in photos often feel as if they are often presented in the foreground. The soft-focused and somewhat dreamy atmospheres give off the feeling of a 19^th century storybook. Her digital work has a very soft and fantasy-like feel. Often, I find that digital work has a somewhat cold or hard feeling. However, Taylor’s work emits a somewhat warmth and cozy feel that can at times be somewhat harder to convey in purely digital works. 

The compositions in her pieces feel somewhat clumsy or awkward. However, I feel as if this adds to the charm and endearing aspects of the work. Her mythical and child-like characters are reminiscent of magical childhood stories. Aesthetically, I was drawn to her work because of its very surreal quality. The pieces feel very whimsical, and dream-like. I was also interested in the fact that she is able to create such transformative and magical landscapes with everyday objects. Her work has a very strong painterly overtone. The work has a strong sense of texture that promotes a feeling of depth and dynamic space.

Works Cited

http://maggietaylor.com/home.php

http://www.paciarte.com/paci/en/artists/144-maggie-taylor

http://www.vervegallery.com/?p=artist_biography&a=MT

24 Hours Without Technology

This past weekend I spent 24 hours without technology. The time spent without technology was much less anxiety-filled than I would have guessed. I ended up just running errands, and making sure to keep myself busy. I realized that the most important aspect of my phone is that I use it as a clock. I found that I wasn't as aware of time when I was without my cellphone for the day. The twenty-four hours weren't too difficult because during the weekend I seemed to have much more plans and things to do to occupy my time. However, I think that if I were to have given up technology during a school day it would have been much more difficult not only because I use so much technology to completely my schoolwork, but I also just seem to use my phone and other technology so much more frequently in between doing my work as a kind of break.