Art and Technology (JC)

JC Ryan Professor Roundtree ART 211 9/25/17 Don Giovanni Don Giovanni truly is one of Mozart's masterpieces. Based on the historical and fictional character Don Juan, Don Giovanni follows the international womanizer as he gets into and out of trouble for his unruly escapades. Aided by Leporello, his servant and accomplice, he tricks and lies to those around him to weasel in and out of his deceptive efforts. In the end, however, Don Giovanni meets his fate when he is confronted by the Commendatore. Don Giovanni refuses to repent for his misgivings and deceptions, and is henceforth seized by demons and dragged below. Watching this opera helped me to understand the semi-destructive life of a libertine, how humor was integrated into classical operas, and why Don Giovanni has been considered a classic through the generations. Considering my knowledge of the Opera, I would confidently say that audiences who saw Don Giovanni originally presented were...

For some reason, clay-mation always succeeds in disturbing me. As a kid, I always found Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer to be highly discomforting. I don't know what it is. The shallow, grossly drawn backdrops and artificially lit settings and weird looking characters just made me feel hollow and troubled. Madama Butterfly manages to do all these things too, but in a way that is soaked in sorrow. On a positive note, I did love the music. The narrative was pretty horrible, and even worse is that this is something that has probably happened more frequently in reality than it should have. The animation was good, though. And the whole thing was very emotionally compelling. But still, the clay-mation thing. It's hard for me to get over.

I decided to combine a woman's face with a lamp-post. I'm calling it: 'Lamp shadesssss????' In sketching I had accidentally drawn the woman's second eye too round, so I looked up and saw a lamppost. So I tried to draw it and it kind of worked out. You could say she had illuminated eye-sight.

Cuero has a lot to say here, especially about how people can find success despite adversity. His essential answer is: creativity. And one of the essential things relating to creativity, for him, is to be "intense". And he elaborates on what he meant by intensity by explaining it is to be "very focused and without fear of failing in the process." This, I think, is a base necessity to confronting the reality of creative work. I always find the fear and angst (unless that is the topic of the piece) are crippling to both the completion and the quality of work in a creative piece. Whether it's art, poetry, film, animation, short stories, etc. the drive has to swallow up the fear. "Be good. And respect people." is Cuero's insightful reaction to prejudice. By building a 'shield of goodness' towards people, he says he keeps himself from overreacting to prejudice against Africans and African Americans. His optimistic attitude and a consciousness o...