Seasons on St. Croix Gallery

I went to the Seasons on St. Croix Gallery in Hudson, WI. There were many things there. There were hand made jewelries there and they are very colorful. It would have been nice as Christmas presents for families and friends. Candles, metal art pieces, handmade pottery, and wooden pieces were displays set on shelves and the walls. The candles were a colorful triangular shape with round edges and neat to look at. Acrylic and water color paintings were hung on the walls. Glass ornaments in decorative ball shapes were hung on metal trees. Many glass plates, glass jars, and other small decoration pieces were very beautiful in color, design, and shapes. Hand made cards, winter mittens, scarves and hats were on display. The winter mittens were cute because each mitten didn’t look the same. Each had similar colors but the fabric was of different designs. Each had different buttons as decoration on the mittens as well. It is something new and I think it is creative.




The art pieces that caught my eye was the very large clay jars. Most were about five feet which is as tall as me. The large jars had covers on them and one jar had a life size bird on sitting on top of the cover. There was a room in the corner where many other large jars were kept. It looked like a work room where the jars were made. Another art piece was the ceramic “Wall Sculpture” made by Kelly Jean Ohd. It was a row of patterned bars placed next to each other but not touching. I enjoyed looking at the many patterns and designs it had. It had a home décor look to it and I would have liked to have the piece in my living room. I enjoyed looking at several slim sculptures that were of people doing different activities. The slim sculptures were pretty tall about almost a meter long. There were six inches trees that were made out of glass. Each glass piece was square shaped and stacked on top of one another. Towards the top of the tree was a small square. It was very interesting to look at.

The Walker Art Center

Benches and Binoculars had paintings that were next to each other on the sides, top, and bottom. The artworks covered the whole sides of two walls. It was neat to use a binocular and look at the paintings that were so far up towards the ceiling. Some paintings you can just look at it and know what it is and others you need a binocular to get a closer look. The binoculars can give you a view of the details in the art paintings. There were acrylic paintings, photography, and oil paintings. There are realistic and modern arts. Many colors were used. Some paintings were rainbow colors and others were darker colors. There were small and big sizes. I did enjoy the views of many types of paintings. It’s different in a good way to sit back and look at the many paintings on one side of the wall. Then turn around and view the rest. Usually, most museums have paintings that are lined up in rows and no benches to sit on. So, experiencing Benches and Binoculars was enjoyable.

The Event Horizon galleries had artworks from various artists. I found the two Egyptian lions with the head of a human interesting. It’s faces were covered with pillows with lamps tied around it. The lamp lights were turned on. There was a circled art piece called “Light I” by artist Jim Hodges. It had small pieces of mirrors in a circled pattern. It was an eye catching artwork. Another art piece was the “Whitefield” by Gunther Vecher. It was painted white nails that were nailed onto a white board and the nails were bent to look like grass fields blown in the wind. It caught my eye as well. It was neat that the nails can be created to like alive. There was a room with two opposing mirrors, two recording cameras with time delay, and two video monitors. When I stepped into the room, the cameras recorded me and I could see myself in the monitors like one minute before. It was neat because the mirrors reflect each other and it looks like an infinity.

One large room in the Haegue Yang: Integrity of the Insider was red. It had fans, red light, and blinds that hung from the ceilings. Behind it was a room with musical equipment and instruments. The next art pieces that caught my eye was the written letters that looked like they all got soaked in water. Some letters were written in black or blue ink and wrinkled. The letters were blurry and hard to read. I think that it was the intention of the letters by the artist. It was a unique exhibit and experience.

The Elemental exhibits were 3D shapes in squares and rectangles. The artists use strings to create a cube in corner of the walls. By using the wall and strings, the artists make their art piece. To me, I think is amazing, what things they use to make minimalism art. There were objects in the exhibit that were gray square cubes. One object was a blue rectangle but when you walk around it there is a tunnel that you can see right through it. I think Minimalism is simple to look at because when you look at it you can see it for what it is.

The Goldstein Museum

The Goldstein Museum Gallery exhibits office furniture since the early 1940’s to 1970’s. Charles and Ray Eames designed and make lounge chairs, reclining chairs, cabinets and desks. Most the chairs are molded plywood and rounded on the edges. The chairs with the rounded edges remind me of the wooden school desks in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s. Even today, most school chairs are made of plastic and not wood anymore but the seats still have the rounded edges. Indoor and outdoor reclining chair were designed for comfort with a pillow to place a person’s head. A matching ottoman for the feet to rest on. They used calfskin for a plywood chair which is pretty stylish. Their furniture designs were dated since the early 1940’s and helped shaped the value of furniture designs in the office and home.

George Nelson’s designs are dated late 1940’s to the 1970’s. He designs furniture for specific uses such as desks for typewriting, phone desks, tray tables, and loveseats. The blue loveseat is made of foam cushions in circles and is probably very comfortable when we sit on it. The communications center is a desk with a phone placed on the top left of the desk. I’d say that George wanted to change the way furniture looked. Usually, furniture is for people to sit on or work. But he designed furniture to look fashionably different from what people are used to seeing and at the same time it is comfortable furniture for the body. George Nelson’s role at Herman Miller was to design furniture in American modernism.

The overall message of the Herman Miller’s company is to get real. According to Herman Miller “Good Design” is the quality in furniture. Furniture are designed to give an office space extra room and help in work production. Herman Miller designs create comfort furniture and assists in an organized work space for his clients.

The Charles and Ray Eames furniture design, which caught my eye was the lounge chair with the brown-white calf skin over molded plywood with chrome legs. It is amazing with the idea of calfskin on plywood in the 1950’s. It is something different and at the same time one of a kind. The red dyed molded plywood lounge chair was interesting because of its bright color and looked like a modern style. Like, it is a chair that we would still see today but was made and created in 1947. The loveseat or marshmallow sofa designed by George Nelson caught my eye because of it’s nice color and circled foam cushions. It looked nice but made me wonder if it would be comfortable to sit on with so many circles. Since people are shaped differently from each other. They make sure that the chairs are comfortable to sit in because people use and need furniture everyday. I enjoyed the exhibit because I didn’t realize that people do put a lot of thought into designing furniture.

The Bell Museum

The first dioramas were made in late 1700-1900’s. They were used for creating illusions in theatres. In the late 1800’s-1900’s, science museums started using dioramas to educate in science and nature. Dioramas are important today because environments are changing. Animals are losing their homes to habitat destruction, growing cities, highways, railroads, and suburban divisions. Scientists and museums are creating an awareness and appreciation for nature and wildlife by displaying dioramas. Diorama displays vanishing wildernesses and promotes conservation. It depicts an accurate exhibition of the animal’s environment and the different wildlife that lives in the habitat. The exhibits are works of art that show animal behaviors and is a good place for anyone to learn about animals and nature. The museum exhibits different types of animals, reptilians, and fishes that live in lakes, forests, and in different parts of the states. The Bell Museum also has a room where you can see living turtles, snakes, beetles, bones, and fossils.

The room “Behind the Diorama” has large pencil sketches, drawings, and models of what artists used to plan the dioramas. They have a display of the different types of tools taxidermists use to make the animals in the dioramas. In another display case, shows how the animal’s environment was made using dried leaves and reproduced vegetation. It’s neat how they show us how the dioramas were researched, planned, and then made.

The paintings in “Drawn to Nature” art exhibition are artist’s own inspirations for the natural world. There were paintings of animals such as elk, moose, and buffalos in their habitat. It’s like your looking out a window and watching the animals in their habitat.
The appreciation for nature’s beauty was painted in the bright colors of the skies, snowy stumps, and Lake Superior rock in water. The acrylic painting “Barnswallow on Nest” by the artist Kellie Rae Theiss was a painting of a mother barnswallow bird on the side of her nest of hungry babies. The three baby bird’s mouths were open wide waiting for the mother bird to put food in their mouths. It’s amazing how she depicted a mother bird in action feeding her young babies. There were photographs of Choppen waterfalls, Red Pine forests, and ocean waves catching nature’s beauty also. I liked the photo of the “Lotus Field” by Chris Faust. It is a photograph of the artist’s appreciation for nature’s beauty and it’s beautiful field of blossomed white lotus flowers.

The dioramas at the Bell Museum are scenes of animals in its habitat. The animal’s behaviors are amazingly realistic. The animal’s habitats are realistically well done and beautiful. There were fun activities for children to do in the halls of the dioramas such as the “Bog Walk” to get a feel of how walking on bogs feel like. The “Be a Bear” activity had two bear costumes and a bear den made of sticks and logs to get the feel of being a bear would feel like. It’s a fun atmosphere and very educational.

Pixel & Pen / Lucia Hwang: What's Up?

Pixel and Pen presents thirteen artists who use digital media into art using computers. The artworks are showing the importance of people in our society and the things that helped change the way we lived in technology, science, and law.

The artwork “Barack Obama” by the artist James O’Brien, is made using screenprint. It is a picture of President Barack Obama in a blue tie black suit. He is the first African American president in the United States and he brought change to the world.

The artwork “Madame Curie” by the artist Roman Verostko, is made ink on paper. There are writings on the bottom, and a pink cloth covering yellow orangish-green hair. Madame Curie is the first famous woman scientist.

The exhibition Lucia Hwang: What’s Up? is about arranging household objects and seeing them with material style. The artworks represent that material affects our emotional well-being. Seeing the outside of something does not mean that the inside is like the outside because we don’t always accept what we don’t see. When I first went inside the Gage Family Art Gallery exhibit, I saw red caution tapes circle around a girl shape drawn on the floor. It looks like a homicide drawing. The girl is holding a purse on one hand above her head. The girl shape was colored in with a designer purse design in colors brown and tan. In fact all four objects have the brown and tan designer purse design, except for the blue chicken. The second was the “Trash Can.” It is a trash can that looks like it was tipped over and fell on the floor spilling some trash out. The third was a wall of egg cartons colored brown and tan designs. Rows of white eggs sit in the decorated egg cartons. A blue chicken wearing black sunglasses and a brown tan designer purse around it’s neck. He sits in the middle of the wall looking cool standing on a board. The fourth is a white toilet surrounded by a bunch of toilet paper rolls. The paper wrapped around the toilet paper rolls were the brown tan design.

I liked both exhibitions. It’s cool how Lucia Hwang uses designer patterns to turn materials and objects to be viewed differently. Pixel and Pen is unique because it’s works shows the importance of change and how it could affect us.

The Hennepin County Library

The theme for The Precious Object gives the viewer a reaction of wonderment and at the same time delight with amazement. Charles Wilson Peale’s artworks at Peale’s Philadelphia museum inspired the art room at the Hennepin County Library. Charles Wilson Peale’s created his artworks to give his viewers contemplation, amazement, delight, and wonderment. Each of the artist’s artworks in the Cargill Hall was unique because they each made their artworks by hand. Some of the artworks are taxidermies of animals like the snake and duck. Others are paintings, collages, handmade items, and ranges in size from life size to small. Displaying these artworks at the Hennepin County Library is the perfect place because the library is a place where imagination and learning develops the mind. The artworks give new imagination to the viewers when they see an exhibit they never saw before. Each of the artist’s artworks in the Cargill Hall is unique.


The artwork “Mimicry” made by the artist Alison Hiltner is a mixed media of artificial flowers. The flowers are ball shaped with pink to red petals and all sizes from big to small. The flowers have green spider leg vines that are arranged so that they look like they are growing on the floor and on the column in the room. I like the artwork because the artist has a creative imagination. She can bring life to beautiful flowers by making them look alive and real.

Alison Hiltner’s artworks can be found at the URL below:
http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=243301#

The artwork “Painting Painting with Van Der Weyden” made by the artist Margaret Wall-Romana is oil on wood panel. Rogier van der Weyden’s art painting “Deposition From the Cross” inspired this artist’s artwork. Rogier’s painting has Christ brought down from the cross. The artist Margaret sees Christ in van der Weyden’s painting in her own unique creative way. The artist paints a nature landscape to portray Christ’s death and rebirth from Persephone’s dream. The artwork has vines, four leaf clover, budding flowers, butterfly, and dry leaves. She uses colors of dark brown for vines, green plants, white veil or cave, yellow butterfly, a purple and orange flower. All the plants and vines look like they are inside a white cave. Looking through the white cave you see a landscape view of green mountains. I like that the artist has a creative eye, she gives her painting a personal meaning of an inspirational figure and paints it from her own perspective.

Margaret Wall-Romana’s artworks can be found at the URL below:
http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=243324#
www.mwallromana.com

The artwork “54847” by the artist Ginny Maki is made of felt material, thread, and wire. The felt material is white and gray thread is used to sew the material into houses and buildings. There is no roof on them so you can see right through the houses and buildings. Windows and doors are sewn on the felt with gray thread to make them more realistic. There are loose and clumped up gray thread hanging from the felt. The artist hangs the houses and buildings to make them look like they are floating in the air. Each house and building is hung differently. Some twisted, some on their side, and others look broken apart. The artist takes a memory of a place or location and makes a contrast of how the places were conceived and experienced. I like this artist because she thinks creatively. She expresses personal behavior through the homes and buildings.

Ginny Maki’s artworks can be found at the URL below:
http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=243312#
www.mnartists.org/Ginny_Maki

The artwork “Blinded by words” is by the artist Beth Barron. She hand stitched the words on white cotton cloth with white cotton thread. White color dog hair surrounds the rectangular cloth on the sides and bottom. There is a magnifying glass pinned next to the artwork so the viewers can get a closer look or read the white sewn words. There are some brown spots on the cloth to make it look like it was used. The artist is portraying that incoherent words can be blinding. I like this artist because she has a really creative idea portraying the blindness of words.

Beth Barron’s artworks can be found at the URL below:
http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=243306#
http://www.mnartists.org/Beth_Barron


Cesar Pelli is a creative architect. The architecture of the Hennepin Library is in the shape of a rectangle but when you go inside, it is a triangle. You can reach each floor by elevator, escalator, or stairs. When you get to each floor you can see the outside traffic and people. There are hallways or bridges on every floor that you can take to reach the other side. The Hennepin Library is the perfect place for studying, reading and to put an art exhibit that can let the viewer use their imagination and at the same time create wonderment.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a three floor building that holds all kinds of fine artworks from all over the world. The museum shows historical artworks from Africa, Asia, Egypt, Rome, Greek, Pacific Islands, America, and Europe. The museum displays jewelry, weapons, paintings, sculptures, furniture, and many more objects from all different cultures and places.

One of the five objects I chose is from Egypt. I find the “Cartonnage of Lady Tashat” dated 1085-710 B.C interesting. I chose it because the hieroglyphs inside the coffin and outside the cartonnage were colorful and has symbolic meanings. The hieroglyph on the wooden coffin tells us that the mummy’s name is Teshat. She is the daughter of the treasures of the temple of Amon at Thebes. She died in her late teens. The cartonnage is painted to represent Teshat’s face. The coffin is made of polychromed pine. The cartonnage is varnished linen and painted. I learned that ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. The body of the deceased was preserved using the process of embalming or mummification. They wrap the body with linen bandages and use the cartonnage to enclose the body. They use plaster and linen to mold the body and it gets painted. This process ensures the survival of Ka and the body is preserved as the Ka’s eternal dwelling.

The second object I chose is from Africa. It is the Palm Wine Cup from the 19-20th century. It is a wooden cup that has a carved head where wine can be poured in and a carved foot on the bottom of the cup so it could stand up when set down. I liked it because the cup could stand up on one foot. I learned that palm wine is a popular festive drink in Central Africa. People like to use beautiful carved wooden cups to drink their palm wine especially important people.

The third object I chose is from Islam. It is a gold Lion Statuette made by the artist Hispano-Moorish from the 11-12th century. It is a beautifully decorated small golden lion that caught my attention. It is decorated with filigree and fine gold granulation. I learned that Islamic gold objects are rare and are made in the homes of taifa aristocrats.

The fourth object I chose is from China. It is an incense burner made of green jadeite from 18th century. It is in the form of a Ting vessel. I liked it because the green jadeite is beautifully carved with floral designs and dragons. I learned that the floral designs means longevity and the bats are for good fortune and happiness.

The fifth object I chose is from Japan. They are three painted scrolls during the Kamakura period. It paints three deities Futen, Bonten, and Nichiten in colored ink on silk. I like it because it is colorfully painted and each scroll has its own symbolic meaning. I learned the deities are celestial beings that originated from Hindu gods. China introduced them to Japan and it was adopted into Buddhist pantheon to serve as guardians for the heavens, earth, sun, and moon. The scrolls are used in rituals for New Years or displayed on walls of the Imperial Chapel.

The Dia de los Muertos ofrendas were made by students from El Colegio urban based magnet school in Minneapolis. The purpose for making ofrendas altars are to honor those who have died. The Day of the Dead is a Mexican tradition that is celebrated every year because they believe that their deceased families return to visit the living relatives. The altars are a form of artistic expression because each student makes their ofrendas differently and they have their own artistic reason to what their ofrendas is for. Some students make the ofrendas for deceased family members and friends. Other students make the ofrendas to represent death as part of the Mexican tradition and culture. I like that one student made her ofrendas to respect all the women who have been abused. Students offer the deceased things like food, mementos, music, and pictures. Skulls are used to symbolize that death is a natural part of the life cycle.

The exhibition “From Towers to Teakettles: Michael Graves Architecture and Design” are works from the artist Michael Graves. He is a world known artist, designer, and architect. He designs kitchenware for Target and he design part of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He started his works in the 1960’s when he was a student at the American Academy in Rome. The teakettles, chess game, toaster, and many more objects are made in classical and modern art using color and shape to make them interesting to look at. His architectural designs are humanism. He uses a variety of shapes in his architectural designs such as squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. Michael likes Renaissance art and architecture and he uses columns, porticos, rotundas in his architectural designs as well.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is beautiful with its large wishing fountains and elegant art pieces. The second and third floor of the museum is big and the first floor is smaller. Each exhibit is organized separated by rooms. Some exhibits take up more rooms than others because the artworks are bigger and there are more. I like the artworks that were displayed at the museum. It amazed me how artistic artists were in how they could use natural resources to make beautiful art like the Egyptian hieroglyphs walls, weapons, and jadeite sculptures. I enjoyed going to M. I. A. and I would go there again.

Como Park Conservatory

Frederick Nussbaumer had an ideal public park for Saint Paul and it was the Como Park Conservatory. He wanted to attract visitors to the park and share with people a variety of modern artistic styles of art. He expanded the greenhouses to provide more room for plants and education for students in school to learn horticulture and aquatic plants. The Como Park Conservatory got its name in 1915 when the glass dome was built. It was built in Renaissance style. It has the dome, columns, and a staircase going up to an arched entrance. The top and sides of the conservatory are made of clear glass. Walking pass the building, you can see through the windows. When I’m going up the stairs the building looks huge and beautiful. It has an elegant and exotic look.

The inside of the building is very warm. The plants were separated into three areas, the fern room, the Sunken garden and the North garden. The North garden was like an exotic tropical rainforest. It has many plants, flowers, and trees that came from tropical forests all over the world. There are huge palm and banana trees. The tallest was the palm tree that reached all the way to the top of the dome. There were all different kinds of colorful fruits such as the pineapple, oranges, papaya, mango, chocolate, tamarind, sugarcane, and bananas growing. All different kinds of herbs were growing. There were colorful exotic flowers such as the orchids in purple and bright magenta, the miniature fishtail palm, macaw flower, and Annatto that is used for making lipstick color. The tropical trees, flowers, and plants were planted according to how they’re used for in medicine and what plants we can eat. The signs by the plants explains what the plants are used for which is very helpful. There was a Koi fish pond that was very nice. There is a statue of a monk by the pond. It is a renaissance style monk. It creates a peaceful atmosphere with the monk there. The Koi fishes were very active, big, and beautiful. I like that there is so much variety of tropical trees, flowers, and plants that I’ve never seen before.

The Fern room which is in the middle of the dome was amazing. The signs say that the ferns that grow at the conservatory were the same ferns that grew during the dinosaur ages. There were a variety of ferns and palm trees. The plants and trees were arranged so that the tallest trees were in the center and the shorter plants were on the outside. Being able to see how high the fruits and palm trees were helped give me an idea of how tall the conservatory really was. There was a bronze sculpture that was made by the artist Harriet Frismuth. The theme is “Crest of the Wave.” It has a girl that looks like she is dancing on top of a fountain. It fits the dome because the statue is playful and creates a fun atmosphere for any visitor who comes to the conservatory.

The Sunken garden was like a magical garden. There were cabbage flowers and a variety color of chrysanthemum flowers. It had a Koi fish pond in the center of the room with yellow lotus flowers growing on top of the pond and chrysanthemum flowers surrounded on the outside. The room looked bright because there were no tall trees. There was a bronze statue of a girl that is touching a toad with the tip of her toes. It was made by the artist Harriet W. Frishmuth. It gives the atmosphere of the garden a more relaxed and happy feeling. The statue is acting playful and she is happy. The theme is “Play Days” and it fits well with the garden because I saw people bring books to read there. Others were just sitting and talking there admiring the garden.

In 1915, Como park was just a park for visitors to take walks, be in nature, have picnics, enjoy the forests and flowers. Until people all over the world started having glassed conservatories that they grow their tropical plants in. People were having high standards for public art and Fredrick took the opportunity to expand his greenhouses since he didn’t have enough room for his plants. Renaissance architecture and mosiaculture was popular during the 1900’s. The idea of mosaiculture originated in Germany, where Frederick was born and from renaissance gardens. Having the conservatory dome structure and its glass windows gives the twin cities an identity and history. The displays of the flower and plants at the Como Park Conservatory are significant because it provides education and extravagantly romantic settings for social events or a place to just hang out. Memories can be made just by being in these beautiful gardens because people also come here to get married, have picnics, and take family pictures.

Intermedia Arts & Soo V. A. C.

The exhibition at Intermedia Arts exhibits different kinds of art from twenty-eight women from all over the world. The art exhibit uses Hip-Hop visual art to bring education and inspiration to all women globally. It has all kinds of colorful arts ranging from photography, acrylic paintings on canvas and skateboards, drawings, collages using spray paints, terra cotta under glaze and glazed plates, and giclee printed illustrations. The theme that connects all the artists and their work is the Nefertiti Remixed art by the featured artist Lauri Lyons. Her artwork is a homage to the history of women’s greatness in culture specifically Egyptology.

The first artwork that I chose is “Knock Out” by the artist Shannon Joyce. It was acrylic on canvas. I liked that the title of the artwork had a double meaning. The artwork has an attractive looking woman in very short shorts, a tank top, and long black hair which makes her a knock out because she is attractive looking. She is holding chains in one hand and a bat in the other hand like she’s going to knock the viewer out.

The second artwork that I chose is “Luxury Problems” by the artist Motel 7. It was acrylic on canvas. I liked how the artist portrays luxury as a problem in her own unique way through art. The artwork has a teary eyed girl in a princess dress that looks like a strawberry pie. The girl’s stomach area has a face with its mouth open letting gray ghostlike steam going out. The girl has tattoos on both her arms and is holding two balloons in her hand. One balloon is round and happy. The other is sad and seemed to lose most of the air inside. There is a gingerbread house and a grave with bones behind the girl on the left side and a rainbow on the right. The artist seems to portray that money can’t buy happiness and sweet food can’t fill a person’s appetite for happiness.

The murals outside the building were either spray painted or aerosol painted and very colorful. The front of the building has a bridge with colorful hands representing different nationalities holding up the bridge. There is a line of people running across the bridge. The theme is “Build bridges not fences”. I like the theme because there is so much truth to it. On the side and back of the building have all sorts of graffiti arts and tags. They’re very colorful and huge on the building’s outside walls. I liked this artistic expression because they’re announcing that they are artistic women who are making history on the walls with their graffitis. Everyone who drives by or walks by the building will see the colorful graffiti artwork. Those who are interested by the artworks will want to come and see what all the colorful graffiti is about and who the artist is that made them. It is also a way to get more people aware of what Intermedia Art’s mission and purpose is all about for artistic women all over the world.

The Soo Visual Arts Center exhibits Greg Gossel and Amy Rice’s artworks. The artwork by Greg Gossel titled “Worthless” shows a color comic book man who seems to be leaning forward to kiss a teary eyed girl on her right cheek. There are pieces of magazine pictures and comic book word bubbles as the background. Greg’s artworks are layers of comic book characters, tabloids, and magazines. I like Greg’s artworks because they are creative and unique.

The artwork by Amy Rice titled “Paperboat” shows a girl rowing herself on a life size paper boat. The river and paper boat has written words on them like a love letter does. The background is red trees in a teal sky. I like this artwork by Amy because she has so much wonderful childhood memories and a great imagination.

All the artworks that I saw at Intermedia Arts and Soo V. A. C, made me realize how unique each artist is independently. No one else has the same visual imagination and expression. Each artist has their own unique and creative way of expressing who they are as their own person. It’s like they are each making their mark in art history and showing to people in the future that their style of art is their own. It amazes me how art history can be portrayed in so many different ways and styles.

The Museum of Russian Art

The museum of Russian Art exhibits Russian art paintings. It’s amazing how they can turn a Spanish Colonial Revival style church into a three level Russian art exhibit. The church building with so much history fits nicely together with displays of Russian paintings. The main gallery I would say is the room where people in the past sat in rows of benches. The altar would be at the end of the room where there’s a big arch. The basement would be the lower level where the “Photography of the Tsar” is. The museum of Russian art is historically beautiful on the outside and inside.

The dates of a few artist paintings are more than a century old and most of the paintings are this century. Most of the Russian artist’s paintings are realism art. Almost all of them depict real people in real life.

The first art I chose in the Russkiy Salon on the main gallery is the painting “Sunday In The Village” by Nikolai Dmitrievich Dmitriev-Orenburgsky made in 1884. He painted using oil on canvas. I like this painting because the painting shows what ordinary people do on a normal Sunday in the country. He paints adults dancing by a man playing an accordion, children and adults watching, a woman breastfeeding, homes in the background, and a church. When I look at the painting it looks real as if I was there watching these people have fun. If you look closely at the painting it is very detailed in the faces of people and their clothing. I like this artist because he is very talented visually and detailed.

The second art I chose in the Mezzanine gallery is “A Day in Autumn” by the artist Aleksei Mikhailovich Gritsai made in 1995. He painted using oil on canvas. I like this painting because the painting shows a Russian forest landscape during the fall when the leaves are turning a yellow color. This realism painting makes you feel like your seeing a colorful forest by looking out a window. The paint texture of the yellow leaves brings out the realism of the leaves being blown down by the wind. I like this artist because he’s very precise in painting the beauty of nature during one of its changing season.

The third art I chose in the Mezzanine gallery is “Milkmaids, Novella” by the artist Nikolai Baskakov made in 1962. He painted using oil on canvas. I like this painting because the Russian milkmaids look like they are having fun on a sunny day at the farm. The painting shows three milkmaids on a farm during a work break. The milkmaids are sitting in the grass and two of the milkmaids are laughing hysterically as if one of the three had told a joke. You can tell they are milkmaids because they have two large milk cans next to them and about four cows behind them. This is a good realism painting because the facial expressions of the milkmaids and every detail are very real. The painting made me feel like I was there and I could feel how funny the joke was. I like this artist because he captured the three Russian milkmaid’s happy moment very well.

The exhibit “Photographer to the Tsar” down in the lower level of the building were pictures of people in their everyday lives in central Asia taken by Sergei M. Prokudin-Gorskii. Sergei was one of the first photographers who was able to advance his camera to capture color in photos. He is unique because he was able to take color photography while he was traveling in Russia and central Asia. The lower gallery displayed the lighted photos in square frames. Each photo had a number under it and an exhibition guide was provided. The booklet had more information of what the photos were about and where they were taken. All of the photos were very colorful. Being able to see the colors from that time period was very fortunate for me. Not too many photos in that time were colorful. I can see what colors their fabrics, clothes, food, and buildings are. The colors show more detail in what color the clothing and jewelry are like between rich and ordinary people. The colors also show what kind of culture, nationality, climate, and type of landscape the people live in. I’m glad I got to see these colorful photos taken by Sergei.

The Northern Clay Center

The Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis is a place where ceramic artists use the spaces at Northern Clay Center to exhibit, sell, and create their ceramic artworks. Classes, workshops, and programs are offered to adults and children to learn about clay and ceramic art.
When I walked through the entrance, I saw lots of ceramic artworks displayed on shelves, windows, and floors. Some were for sale. To the right, past the receptionist desk, was the Regis Masters Ron Meyers and Patti Warashina exhibits.
Ron Meyers artworks are mostly made out of earthenware which is a ceramic material. His earthenware artworks are of plates, bowls, baskets, yunomis or teacups, jars with covers, and platters. Ron Meyers paints birds, bulls, frogs, chickens, pigs, dogs, and a woman onto his ceramic artworks. The colors he uses are brown, red, yellow, black, light blues, and whites to give color to his artworks. Most of his work are painted and glazed. The rest are either wood-fired stoneware or salt-fired stoneware. Although these stoneware artworks are brown and less colorful, they have the same expressionism as his painted ceramic artworks. Ron Meyer's expressionism is to make the animals faces look humanly alive. The animals each have their own facial expression which shows what the animal is feeling at the moment. Ron Meyers paints facial expressions especially focusing on the eyes and mouth of the animals. Some of the mouths of the animals is curved up or down. Some showing teeth, some not. It's the same with the eyes, the eyes are slanted or straight. Depending on the shape of the eyes and mouth makes the animals look angry, sly, happy, shy, serious, and or scared.
He also has drawings in charcoal and pastel of farm animals grouped together, grouped fishes, chickens, teapots, bowls, and other pottery tableware. He doesn't use much color in his drawings. The colors he mostly uses in his drawings are black and white. The other colors he uses are red, brown, yellow, blue, and green. Again, his drawings focuses on the facial expressions which looks humanly alive. Some animals are looking at us and some are looking at other animals. The animals either look angry, sly, happy, shy, serious, and or scared.

To the right of the room are the artworks of Patti Warashina. Her ceramic sculptures are all made of white ware with underglaze and glaze. Her artworks are humorous and sarcastic. She expresses humor and sarcasm through mini human sculptures, birds, dogs, shapes, facial expressions, and colors. Her sculptures have very human like expressions on their faces that after you read the title you can easily understand what Patti Warashina is portraying. Her ceramic sculptures are about two to three feet tall that looks like little people but with a large head, shorter arms, hand, legs, and feet. The mini human like sculptures are naked with protruding chests. Most of them have oval like shapes and triangular cones on top of their heads. For her naked sculptures she uses a whitish pink color for skin tone. She paints shapes and patterns onto the bodies using mainly the colors black, red, and blue. The sculptures are mostly underglazed but only some parts of the shapes on the sculptures are glazed such as parts on the arm, legs, and certain shapes on the body.
Patti has four framed drawings, that uses monoprints, drypoint etching, and copperplate etching. Her colors, again she sticks with red, black, and white. Both in her drawings and sculptures, she is using surrealism art showing how people think and showing certain forms of problems in life that people have. I noticed that the eyelids of her mini human sculptures are thick. They look like they are sleepy or tired. I believe she is depicting humor and sarcasm by putting her sculptures in imaginary environments like in a lucid dream states.
Before Patti starts to make her sculptures, she puts her ideas and images in a drawing or painting first. Patti always likes to try different ways in ceramics because she liked the challenges in ceramic sculpting and that is why she made her paintings in solid forms by sculpting 3D figures.

Patti Warashina's work at the Northern Clay Center reflects her background because she learned a lot about ceramics technologically from schools like the Northern Clay Center that does workshops and tours around the country. It also affected her work as an emerging ceramic artist because she was able to see a lot of artists that influenced her artworks. Back then, during her times as an emerging ceramic artist, ceramic was not considered an art. It's because of schools like the Northern Clay Center that helped make ceramics part of the art culture.
Patti Warashina's artistic philosophy is that art or clay can be anything you want it to be. She has a unique way of looking and seeing things. Especially, the way she is able to bring humor to faux pas and tragedies in real life. That's where she usually get her ideas from. She has a strong independence where she believes that artists should be able to say what they want to say or express it however they desire in their artworks.

In the College Bowl II/09 exhibition, the first ceramic object I like was the artist Emily Bardwell from Macalester College. The artwork titled, "Lace 1 & 2." The artwork was made of earthenware. I liked it because they were rounded perfectly like a ball but with beautiful patterns. One ceramic pot was a pretty light blue in color with white flowered pattern that had a texture that reminded me of clam shells. The other ceramic pot background was white with navy blue colored flower pattern that was stamped or carved into the surface. Looking at both pots far or near was still beautiful.
The second ceramic object I like was the artist Anne Scott Plummer from Winona State University. The artwork titled, "Reclining Couple." The artwork was made of stoneware. I liked it because it has a curvy woman sitting on top of a man in a loving reclining position. The color is orangy white, the arms and legs of the couple are angled, and the woman's got her hand in the man's hair like they are in love. I think the artist's is portraying the sculpted couple as having a "sensual" moment. Anyways, I think it's a great gift for couples who are still in love on their anniversaries.

The Soap Factory

The “Soap Factory” in Minneapolis was a worn out brick building with railroad tracks behind it. In the back of the building, each window had a letter that spelled SOAP FACTOY. When I walked up to the porch like entrance that curved like the letter “L”, I saw rusty colored railings and stairs. There was a long red vinyl bench and a long wooden bench to the left. Right next to the wooden bench on the left was a black equipment that kind of looks like a barbeque grill.
Reading about the history of the building was interesting because it is an old building dating back to the 1800’s that had lots of owners. The last owner was “National Purity,” in 1924, which became the actual soap factory for 75 years. National Purity manufactured soap and detergent for dairy farmers to clean the waste from milking equipment, milk tanks, and cows. Later in 1960, it included products used for cleaning, maintenance, and sanitation. When National Purity moved out, the old building became vacant. David Graeve at the “No Name Gallery,” luckily bid and bought the place for one dollar in 1995. The “No Name Gallery” was a non-profit that had contemporary art exhibits from emerging young artists and well known artists. When the “No Name Gallery” moved to the “Soap Factory” it kept the name.
Walking through the door entrance, I see the receptionist desk and I noticed right away the large sized lighted white umbrellas above it. Most of the ceilings in hallways and some rooms had large lighted white umbrellas all bunched together. The umbrellas on top of others remind me of a community of jellyfishes in water. I really like the umbrellas because it’s so pretty and I’ve never seen anything like it. The rooms had wooden floors, brick walls, rusted pipe lines in the wooden ceiling, wooden square poles in the middle of rooms, and one room even had an elevator that was used for freight loading. There were large rooms and small rooms. The smaller rooms were used for playing videos that were projected on projector screens. I saw conceptual art on the floor, walls, ceilings, and basically every space of the room. I walked into a room and the lights automatically turned off and everything was dark except for the glowing tape in the room. I thought someone turned off the lights on me! Then, I realized conceptual art can be so creative and cool!

The first artwork I chose was by the artist Allison Owen. She didn’t give her art a title, it just had the title “Untitled.” Her art piece was creative and unique because she collected debris from the gallery onto adhesive tape to make her art. When I looked real close at her art it looked like she had all kinds of debris like dirt, dust, small pieces of paper, confetti, fluffy things, hair, and many other stuff. The colors of the debris were mostly brown in color and had texture. It looked like she took the pieces of tape and cut them into the design she wanted and glued them to the two walls in one of the larger rooms. I like what she said in her artist statement “a parasitic relationship with the host space.” I like that she is relating her art to women’s household activities and duties like cleaning. Most people don’t realize how much stuff can be collected when cleaning. But at the same time, Allison is giving the gallery walls a creative touch of decoration using simple patterns that you could see if you look around the building.

The second artwork I chose was by the artist Wendy DesChene. Her art title was “Pinkhorn Duckfeet - Generation 9.” She used colorful acrylic paint in colors pink, gold yellow, green, red, blue, sky blue, and purple. When I first saw her painting, I thought it was a huge pink peacock’s feather. After reading her artist statement, it is really showing nine generations of decay using distortion to separate and end each generation. I think that her mural is portraying that after many years, the “Soap Factory” got old and worn out from different owners. And, now artists have the benefit of using the building’s structures as part of their artwork pieces. I really like the ideas and meaning that she is portraying in her art piece.

The “Soap Factory” gallery space inside and outside wasn’t what I expected at all. After seeing all the very creative conceptual art, I realized how cool it was to see how much space each artist used and how they were able to use different parts of the rooms as part of their art. I’m glad I got to see the “Soap Factory” and the many creative conceptual arts.

Minnesota Center for Book Art and Rosalux Gallery

The exhibition “None of the Above” at Minnesota Center for Book Arts was designed like a collection of mail arts from various artists. On the walls, had lines of mail art bagged and hung on strings. In the middle, sides, and corners of the exhibition had the mail arts of various artists inside glassed cases and glassed shelves. There were mini booklets made out of toilet paper, rubber stamping, postal stamping, trading cards, bookmarks, photos, comics, postal cards, and homage or tribute arts to influential artists. On the right of the exhibition, was a store with colorful patterned papers, artwork, and cards. To the left of the store was a place where artists work to make prints. I saw work tables, printing presses, rollers, paints, inks, tools, chemical solvents, wooden frames, and more.

Most of the artworks are assemblings of mail art. The mail art are collections of postal mail, rubber stamping, trading cards, concrete poetry, and visual poetry. The mail art collections were small like the size of Hallmark cards and 8.5X11 inches letter paper size. All of the artwork was very colorful in color and each had its own different look especially the artworks that are hanging on the walls. Interestingly, when I looked closely at each artwork I saw the different printing press processes in relief, intaglio, lithography, and screenprinting. I have never seen this kind of work and I thought they were neat because they had more texture and I could see how much detail there was in the pictures. The rest of the artworks had photos, drawings, rubber stamps in wooden boxes, pictures from magazine, cardboard boxes, collages, currency, and artistic handwritings or letters in them.

I thought the exhibition was unique because the viewer can see a variety of mail art next to a printing press work setting. The artworks are on the left side and the printing press work room on the right side. Having both visuals gave me a more understanding knowledge of how the assembling of mail art was done in a printing press type of environment.

The exhibition “Praise and Punishment” at the Rosalux Gallery was behind the cafeteria. There was a second level where more paintings and art were. Some of the art were large size paintings. Others were large drawings right on the wall with cassette tape strings used as part of the art. A few of the art were cassette tape strings glued into small frames and white background board.
Most of the artwork’s titles seemed to tell what the art was trying to portray.
The painting called “Spotlight” by the artist Toni Galio had a girl with her face, nose, and chin pointed rather high up. On the floor, the spot where she stands is a white circle of light. The way she is posing with her left hand on her hip behind her and right arm and foot is in front seems to portray that she feels proud. There are men dressed in suits behind her. Two of the men has their backs turned to her and one man looks like he is going to walk pass her with his head looking down to the floor looking rather sad. His right hand is in his right pants pocket and the colors in the background are black. The men look disappointed. According to the title of the painting and the way the painting is portrayed tells me that the girl feels special or has a proud authority over the men behind her.
The painting called “Praise and Punishment” by the artist Toni Galio had a girl with a smiling face holding a bouquet of white flowers looking at us. A few white flowers and petals fell to the ground by her feet. Behind her there is a boy sitting in a wooden brown chair in a black background with his right elbow resting on the arm of the chair. His head is looking down to the floor and with his cheek resting on his right hand. According to the art title and the painting, it showing me that the girl is happy and holding white flowers because she is praised for being good. The boy is looking very sad in a blacker background behind the girl because he is being punished for being bad. I believe that the title of the paintings by Toni Galio, portrays how the person in the painting feels or thinks.
I liked both exhibits at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the Rosalux Gallery. The artworks I saw were new to me and I learned that there are many different types and styles of art.

The Minnesota State Capitol was important for Minnesota because the artists wanted to portray how much Minnesota or the Northwest’s has grown into a modern, westernized, and civilized society. The State Capitol was influenced by Beaux-Arts and Renaissance architecture in the time it was built. The artists wanted to give American buildings an ancient architectural design that is similar to Greek and Roman buildings. You can see Beaux-Art and Renaissance characteristics inside and outside of the building. There is the grand entrances and staircases, the large dome, painted ceilings, masonry floors and walls, arched windows and doorways, painted and sculptured mascarons in rooms, women and men that look like gods and goddesses, murals, life size figural sculptures, balustrades on the stairs, pilasters, and large columns that can weigh more than 800 tons. The Capitol would have modernized technology in heating, electricity, elevators, and more.
The walls, floors, and stairs are decorated with marble and stone in many colors of white, yellow, gray, blue, green, pinkish red, and dark red. Most of the walls are limestone. There are huge sets of columns that have different types of stones and marbles. Most of the stones are right from Minnesota. The marbles are mostly from Italy and all over the world.

Right in the middle of the marbled floor of the rotunda is a glass star framed of brass to represent the North Star and provide light to the basement. When you look up in the rotunda, you see a crystal chandelier right in the middle of the domed ceiling that is decorated in dark teal blue and gold. The architect wanted visitors to look up and see an enormously beautiful dome. Not too far under the dome are decorated with a series of four murals that depicts “The Civilization of the Northwest” painted by the artist Edward Simmons. All the panels were made in Paris, France on a seamless canvas and shipped to Minnesota. “The Civilization of the Northwest” panels are very colorful in green, blue, pink, and flesh tones. The colors compliment the dark teal blue and gold dome nicely. The four panels have a young man who represents the brave American Spirit. The artist chose the theme “The Civilization of the Northwest” to show how northwestern America started with hope and wisdom. By being able to get control of the American land, being able to utilize the earth’s minerals, and through agriculture the northwestern grew to power and wealth.

The paintings that are realism are in the governor’s reception room in the west corridor. One of the realism paintings are “The Battle of Nashville” painted by Howard Pyle. It is a painting of men in Minnesota in action at a battle in Nashville under the command of Colonel L.F. Hubbard. In the background, you see a hills covered with large clouds of smoke. Men are dressed in blue uniform and blue caps on their head lying very low on the dried yellow grass hill. You can see that there are still snow on the ground. Most of the men are holding guns in their hands. When you look at the painting you can see that Howard Pyle can really depict the emotions in the men’s facial features. You’ll see men shot at, wounded, and bleeding.

The paintings that are allegory are “The Contemplative Spirit of the East”, “Messrs. Garnsey and Willett’s Lunettes”, and “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” I chose the painting “The Contemplative Spirit” which is located in the eastern skylight where the Supreme Court Chamber is. This is the perfect place to put the symbolic painting since the Supreme Court is where the seven Justices in Minnesota come together to listen to cases about if the law could have violated a person’s right. The artist is Kenyon Cox. The painting has three women all sitting on yellow Kasota stone. The lady in the middle has wings and she represents “Thought” and is depicting her in deep thinking. The two ladies on either sides of “Thought” have their heads turned towards her and look like they are stressing her. The woman to the right is “Law” and she is holding in her hand a bridle. The woman the left is “Letters” and she is holding a book and on the book cover is a bridle.

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

This is my first time at the Weisman museum! I would say that this museum has unique features on the outside and it is plain and small when you walk around inside. I like the views I saw from looking out the window and on the balcony. It was an enjoyable view.

I really like Abdi Roble’s photographs. His black and white pictures really draws your attention to the events that are happening and facial expressions that he was able to capture.

By reading the didactics, it shows Abdi Roble's outlook in Somali life from Kenya, Africa to the United States. I learned that even though Somalis have westernized a little in the United States, they still have their Somali values, norms, and traditions. Abdi's photos gives us viewers an idea and to see what the living conditions were like in Kenya, Africa for Somali men, women, and children in the home and in school. Then he shows photos from all over the United States of Somalis of how much their society has grown over the years. The photos show that more Somali’s are having decent jobs because of education such as the professor at University of Minnesota, a dentist, and a pharmacy drug store owner.

The first photo I chose was the photo of a Somali style wedding. It had about five women in their traditional dresses. It looked like there were a grandmother, a mother, and daughters/ sisters. They were holding hands together in a circle and two girls had their eyes closed. It looked like it could be a prayer or a blessing. It gives me an idea of how Somali style weddings are like.

The second photo I chose was the photo of a group of boys that are sitting down under a tree with their teacher. They are reading off of large tree barks that have words written on it. Abdi Roble noted that, “school supplies are a luxury.” It shows me how much we have in America and how less people still have in other parts of the world.

I can relate to his photographs because I am from a culture that shares similar goals, norms, and values. And because of war, my parents could not live in their country and had come to the United States to have better opportunities. To me, Abdi Roble’s photographs show how much a Somali society have grown in a few years.

I think that Robert Rauschenberg’s exhibit was impressive. He had old newspaper clippings that he had and he wanted to do something with them and decided to turn them into his kind of art.
Most of Robert Rauschenberg didactics was not informative like Abdi Roble’s didactics. But I read from one of Robert Rauschenberg didactics that he is trying to show government corruption, drugs, race relations, terrorism, astronomical events, concerns, and crises. I see he has a collection of newspapers and pictures of events that took place around the 1970’s. Truthfully, I could relate to his art because it had many different events and pictures that was mixed together. The artist didn’t have informative didactics that explains or really supports what he was trying to portray but the art explains it just by looking at it.

I liked one collection that the Weisman museum had. The painting was “Untitled” by the artist Douglas Argue. The oil on canvas painting that had the illusion of the viewer looking through the door and could step into where hundreds of chickens are caged. I was amazed at how many chickens he had to paint into that huge painting.