Collage of My Life

I had a blast creating this collage! It's not often I get to sit down, snip pictures out of magazines and create on a poster board. I chose the theme of a home because it's where my heart is. I love being there. I love decorating there. I love cooking there. I love the people within it. Everything shown in the home is either directly representative of what I love or a metaphor for something even deeper within the home itself.

Color & Light - I used the color palette I did because brown is my favorite color. I wanted to create the dark effect of hard wood floors. I think it brings warmth to a room. The lighter colored furniture brings a softness that contrasts nicely to the dark brown. I used complimentary colors on the door, orange and blue. I then dulled it with some gold and green. The green was originally a little too saturated, or I would have just stuck with that. There are a lot of different hues and tints of whites and browns in this picture. I just let them work together as easily as possible.

Texture - I used a stamp pad to create the texture of the hardwood floors. I used cut out thank you cards to create the area rug in the middle of the room.

Volume - I rounded the edges of some of the pictures of people I love and layered them up with the furniture in the room, as if they were actually inhabiting it.

Line - The front door is supposed to be the main draw of the collage, because of its size. I used straight lines to focus the viewers eyes here. The hardwood floors have strong lines, all horizontal. The main area rug also echoes this. I used three small green rugs to create a diagonal line pointing towards my husband because I also wanted people to notice him because he means so much to me.

Space - I wanted the illusion of the front door standing up and then from there the hardwood floors to be the background and the rest of the furniture to be foreground.

Scale - On the island in the kitchen I have a large coffee cup, a coffee holder and a chocolate cake, because I love all of these things. I wanted the pictures of friends and family to be large as well to show their importance. The door is the biggest because I always want to invite people in and share life with them.

Symbolism - The door as the entrance to my heart. The large lamp, because I want my life to be a light. The number on the top of the door because it's my husband and I's anniversary. The finger pointing next to the green rugs to show I have a direction for my life.

Subject Matter:

Me: I love my friends, family, cooking and my home.

Friends and Family: Shown in pictures

Town, Community, School: I have books on the bookshelf for school. My community is shown through my friends. Nashville is shown by the style of decorating in the home. I feel this is representative of my view of Nashville.

Your Country: The items in the kitchen show my country most. Different from European countries, there are a lot more things on the shelves, such as china.

The World Today: This collage represents my world in my mind.

Art: The colors I matched together, the patterns I chose to use, all show my view of art.

History: Growing up in the north and moving to the south has given me a mish-mosh of what art I enjoy. I don't always like the traditional southern style of furniture, but more rustic. I associate modern style things with the north and I like those in my life just as much as rustic.

The Parthenon and LeQuire Art Gallery Experience

I really enjoyed our field trip to The Parthenon and LeQuire Art Gallery. I saw beautiful artwork and enjoyed a hot summer day.

I learned the Parthenon functioned originally as a temple to celebrate Athena, the Greek goddess of war. It also functioned as a treasury. There are pediments on the east and west side of the building. The east side shows the story of Athena being born. The west pediment is the contest for Athens between Athena and Neptune. The exterior has doric style columns. It was interesting to find out Nashville had a World's Fair at one point. During it many replicas of famous structures were built, The Parthenon being one of them. Nashville created an actual replica afterwards because it was known as The Athens of the South, because of the universities.

It's a beautiful building that brings character to Nashville, but I'm not struck with a sense of awe when I look at it. I wonder if it would be different if I saw the 160 foot statue of Athena inside. I understand why people think we should keep this monument, because we continue to be the Athens of the South, but I don't agree with the spiritual connotations it has. It replicating a place of worship to a goddess does not sit well with me. I think more people would feel different about the relevance of this monument as well if they knew the details of what happened in the original place.

LeQuire was an enjoyable experience! I did think it changed my perspective to speak with the artist. I always want to know what a person was thinking when they created something. The chance to actually have that answered in full was great. I wasn't very fond of Greg Decker's paintings. I much more liked Allen LeQuire's sculptures. They were gorgeous! Decker's paintings weren't structured enough for me. I understand the significance of the colors for him, but they didn't do anything for me.

I could see how once the exhibit was installed it might be easier to experience a work of art. I got this sense even in LeQuire's studio with the forest of statues next to each other. I knew those were supposed to be experienced together. Im sure it would be magical. But, my favorite piece I saw wasn't even complete. It was in LeQuire's studio on the left side of the room. There was a statue of a lifesize woman. She was nude and had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Whatever she was made out of was pure white. My eyes were continuously drawn to her and the shape of her stomach. It looked so realistic and absolutely beautiful. She looked peaceful and confident, yet still soft. I would have loved to spend more time observing her.