Marcel Wanders: Product Design & Interior Design

As I mentioned in my Personal Aesthetics post, I consider the design work of Marcel Wanders to be extremely influential in my contemporary ceramics work and aesthetic values. Below is a link to Marcel's product and interior design site- take a look and prepare to be amazed!
Marcel Wanders: Product Design and Interior Design



Wanders, M. (2010). Marcel wanders- product design & interior design. Retrieved from http://www.marcelwanders.com/index.html

Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA)

Much like the NAEA, the OAEA provides career assistance and financial aid opportunities for future art educators and members of the organization.
OAEA Website


OAEA. (2010). Oaea- home. Retrieved from http://www.oaea.org/?page=home&style=bodytextmiddle

National Art Education Association (NAEA)

Here's a link to the National Art Education Association's Website. The NAEA site contains a lot of information and assistance in how to personally advance in the field of art education through collaboration with other teaching professionals. Memberships are available, as well as research grants and awards, career information, advocacy resources, a lesson planning resources gallery, and so much more... take a look!
NAEA Website


NAEA. (2011). Home- national art education association. Retrieved from http://www.arteducators.org/

Personal Aesthetics: Bulbous, Undulating, and Overwhelming

         I like to think that I can find beauty in everything, and that inspiration can be found everywhere. That is definitely not the truth when it comes to my personal preferences and how I choose not only what I deem as ‘valuable’, but what I regard as beautiful.

Design is beautiful. I had never considered formal design until my junior year when I took mold-making studio. The artist that I took most inspiration from was Marcel Wanders, a product and interior designer from the Netherlands. Specifically in Marcel’s Egg Vase I draw a lot of aesthetic beauty. Egg Vase comes in three different sizes and varies from 10x9 cm, 14.5x9 cm, to 14.5x12.5 cm., and the form is made from hard-boiled eggs dropped into latex condoms. I am most drawn to Marcel’s work because of its delicate cutout patterns and ‘bubbly’ boldness. Being interested in design has led me to be drawn to simplicity- in both form and surface. 

Marcel Wanders

Egg Vase

Porcelain

1997

http://www.marcelwanders.nl/wanders/pages/acc-eggvase_1_4_grouppage.shtml

Being a ceramics major has caused me to look at everything I see from a different perspective. I consider how was something built? What processes were involved in the production of an object? How does the final product affect the viewer? I also consider elements of product design in my work, especially in mold-making. I am naturally drawn to multiples and repetition, I am so POMO! I think that the most aesthetically pleasing art is art that observes the relationship of multiples and their interactions with one another. I think I am so drawn to this art because of the power that multiples can have and the impact that their size has on the viewer, for example in Tara Donovan’s work (below). Multiples and bulbous forms can be overwhelming, undulating, and yet, complete. Which I love.

Tara Donovan

Untitled, 2003

Styrofoam Cups, Hot Glue

Dimensions Variable

Ace Gallery Los Angeles, 2005

http://www.acegallery.net/artwork.php?pageNum_ACE=10&Artist=8

  

Eva Zeisel

                                Prototype for Ceramic Wall Dividers                                   

1958

Eva Zeisel

  Up Vase Series

1958

           Sticking with the beauty of design, the ceramic work of 105 year-old Eva Zeisel is extremely aesthetically pleasing to me. I really enjoy the way that Eva’s forms fit together and how her work serves a purpose. Eva’s color palette is very rich and inviting to the viewer. Color is something that I deem aesthetically pleasing and valuable because I am always drawn to vivid colors and relationships that make work stand out and stand alone.

            My sense of aesthetic meaning and value has changed over time because my interests and knowledge have shaped and fostered this change. I think that maturity and my growth of knowledge and the want to learn has caused my aesthetic value to change since my freshman year of college. Learning about different artists and their styles has developed my mind as an educator and artist and led to the development of my own personal working style. I am now more artistically informed and have moved on from ‘crafty’ art, to art with craft.

 

Responses to: Roymieco A. Carter (2007) "Can Aesthetics Be Taught In Urban Education?"

Summary: Carter's article is about how aesthetics is understood and taught in urban education. It concludes by saying that the teaching of aesthetics in urban education is better understood if tied to lived experiences within the urban environment; The people, spaces, and objects in their everyday experiences become treasured embodiments of beauty. Aesthetics, a tool of critical inquiry, can provide a nontraditional framework for teaching concepts of beauty and value to an urban student. 

Quotes:  "Aesthetics helps the urban student to observe connections and respond with a clear view of responsibility and understanding to the environment. The reflection of the student in relation to the work of art will raise the student's awareness of the subject matter. The aesthetic distance is short and the reflection is clear."

"The path between expression and experience becomes the new 'truth' that is beauty."

"The basis of this inquiry is to address the aesthetic as a key that connects fundamental knowledge production to the lived experience."

Response: I think that Carter's article clearly defined what aesthetics is and how we can use what we see everyday to teach it to students. The part of the article that made aesthetics most clear was when Carter broke it down into conceptual and formal approaches. Conceptual aesthetics concerns itself with the nature of truth, beauty, value, and taste; constructions of social interaction and change. Formal aesthetics focuses on the rules of composition and visual principles and elements. I think that it was really interesting how Carter used hip hop music, graffiti, and style as an urban comparison of aesthetic quality. Using these examples shows how we can be influenced aesthetically by our surroundings/adapt  and use what we know as a basis for teaching aesthetics in the classroom. 

LINK TO Roymieco A. Carter (2007) "Can Aesthetics Be Taught In Urban Education?":  http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/55775319?access_key=key  1seuk1yqwd1azaxkwh1z

Oui, Non, Peut-être: Mona Lisa

For this content assignment, we were to write about an image, video, music file, or other phenomenon and compose an argument that considers its aesthetic qualities and applicability (or non-applicability) as an object of study in art education.

          An aesthetic experience I’ve had recently has been the opportunity of seeing the DaVinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre this past spring break. I was so excited to finally see the ‘monumental’ Mona Lisa I had built up in my mind, but when I finally saw it in person- it was a very depressing Mona Lisa nugget (about 30in.x21in.) I had built up in my head this idea of what the Mona Lisa would be like when I actually approached it- bare on the wall so I could get up close and examine the brush strokes and details that a book couldn’t provide. Boy was I wrong. The Mona Lisa was behind glass, behind a wooden barrier and pretty much the only thing you could do was take a picture of it and claim that you were really there. What if the barrier hadn’t been there? How would my aesthetic experience have changed? What if the Mona Lisa had been bigger?

           

            The aesthetic experience I had while at the Louvre can be applied to the classroom when discussing the contexts in which we view art and the expectations we have for these experiences. Students have a preconceived notion that all works of art are monumental, yet many of them are making these assumptions based off of what they see in their textbooks and view in slides in the classroom. I think that this lesson of viewing art in different contexts could be applied to all age groups.

Our discussions in the classroom could lead to visiting nearby museums and seeing works that were previously discussed. Seeing actual works in person would show the students that there is a difference between viewing works in museums, galleries, home, and in a textbook. It will make them want to have the aesthetic experience of being in front of a piece of art.

Having this aesthetic experience will encourage students to answer philosophical questions about what art is? How their perception of art changes when viewing it in different contexts? How would they describe and interpret their aesthetic experience?

The study of the image comparison of the Mona Lisa would be beneficial as an object of study in art education because it would allow students to discuss aesthetic experiences and what they are/ can be/ how they can happen? Until this quarter I haven’t thought much about aesthetic experiences, let alone know what one was. I think that if we introduce this idea to students earlier in their art careers, it may help them connect with their work and get more involved in art and philosophical discussions with other classmates.