Ari Felsen ART211 blog

My project was inspired by the Dadaism art movement. I created a pair of palm trees out copies of my forearms and hands. Planning this, I wanted my project to feature real objects rather than an abstract piece; however, my main goal was to inflict a strong feeling or tone/mood, but in the simplest way possible. And I believe I effectively have done so. I wanted to use the peacefulness and beauty of palm trees, and combine the stiff, wide open hands to add a creepy/uncomfortable feeling. And, I find that the way the xerox copies came out strongly assist my intentions, as the black and white and Xerox scan help add more eerieness to the composition, making it appear even less relaxing/serene than a normal palm tree.

For the 30x30 grid project, I put a lot of deliberation in the planning of this project. There were so many subjects I could do it on, as well as the countless possibilities for my choice of medium. However, the choice that I decided to go with was a big inspiration to me and meaned the most out of all my other ideas. I did my project on a tribute to Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival. I recently went to Okeechobee just two weeks ago, and it was the most beautiful, happiest, wonderful place I've ever been. The picture I painted is the signature Okeechobee "portal" spiral/logo. This logo was everywhere at the music festival, and looking back at it brings back some of the greatest memories of my life. I chose to use peanuts as my medium because peanuts were the primary source of food for me, basically what I was surviving off of for the four days at the festival. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between, peanuts consisted my Okeechobee diet. Therefore I found it ver...

Attached is the video copy of my flipbook. Despite the difficulty of this product, watching the final product is very satisfying! After countless hours producing my flipbook project, I have finally completed the final result. Although a project based majorly on drawing may sound easy to most people, I can assure that this was not easy by any means. The first step I approached to this was first brainstorming. I took about an hour brainstorming different ideas and planning out how I would use those ideas to create the flipbook. I then narrowed my ideas down until I had one that I felt comfortable and happy doing. Then, I broke up that idea into several parts and planned out the framing and number of frames per "scene" for better organization as well as to more effectively sync the flipbook to the music. Once I had all my plans ready, I began the first stage of officially creating the flipbook. I went through every page and sketched out each drawing in pencil. I did this so ...

The history of batteries really shocked me when I learned how long they have been around for. I had always believed that electricity hasn't even been invented or properly used by humans until the late 1800's when Thomas Edison began experimenting with it. However, scientists have discovered that the presence of batteries dates back long before then. In 1936, workers discovered an ancient battery in the ground while building a railroad near Baghdad, Iraq. The battery, known as a Parthian battery, is the earliest known battery known to man. The battery consisted of just a clay container, with an iron rod wrapped in a copper cylinder inside, and filled with an electrolyte solution (vinegar). The prehistoric device merely produced approximately 1.1 to 2.0 volts of electricity, but that is still very impressive considering that they are estimated to be over 4,300 years old. In the mid 1700's , humans began experimenting with electricity again, as scientist Ewald Georg von...

The blog, Stage Door , by Angel de Quinta features a plethora of excerpts from various different broadway shows or musical performances. The blog mostly consists of several clips of songs and live performances, and then de Quinta gives some background information and his analysis of all of the sets of videos on the blog. Most of the videos featured on the blog are musical numbers from different broadway shows over a few decades. However, de Quinta often included a couple different variations of the same song on the blog. For example, de Quinta included the song, Fifty Percent into the blog with four different performances of the same song. It is an older song, being performed back in the 70's and 80's, but the fact that artists are still recreating this performance indicates that it is a timeless classic. I found this very interesting because it shows you a direct comparison between the different versions, which ultimately acts as evidence to witness the ways in which the per...

            Operas are shows featuring a story and set to music for singers and instrumentalists to perform as supplementation to the dramatic plot. Although not nearly as prominent as they once were, there are still operas being performed all over the world. A long time ago, before modern pastimes, operas were the prime choice of entertainment among people of earlier centuries. The famous opera, Otello, based off the tragic play by William Shakespeare, was developed and composed by famous Italian composer, Giuseppe Verdi. It took Verdi several years of on-again, off-again writing, but eventually completed the composition on November 1 st 1886 and was then first performed in February 1887.             Watching this opera was the first time that I had ever actually watched an entire opera. My whole life I always thought of operas as merely an old-fashioned genre of Broadway, and could not understan...

The animated short film, Madama Butterfly, created by Pjotr Sapegin and inspired by Puccini's famous opera, Madame Butterfly, was very powerful. I found it to be powerful in a plethora of different ways. Most foremost, the method in which the video was created. Pjotr Sapegin filmed this "animation" through stop-motion, a cinematographic technique in which the camera is repeatedly stopped and started, giving the animated figures the impression of movement. Stop-motion is an extremely difficult and tedious method of filming; however, if done patiently and correctly, the time and effort is worth it as it adds a tremendous effect with the visually appealing and stimulating visuals. The method of filming was supplemental to the great effect of this video; however, there was still much more. The music playing throughout the video was the original opera by Puccini. The opera itself tells a story, without the video's aide. The lyrics of the opera obviously have meaning, many...