As the Artistry blog is about showcasing artists and their art, be it handcrafted pieces or paintings, I took some time and browsed through some blogs here in WordPress that are related to my beat to get some sense of how other bloggers work, and an interesting post on a blog called Word & Music   caught my eye. The writer of the blog is Debbidbu who in his first blog post says he’s over 50 years old, I bet you can also imagine the experience he has. The blog is not about art per se, it is about book and movie reviews, the television show “frequent rants” and current events concerning culture topic, personal stories, musings on life and love. This interesting post I saw is dated 17 July 2019 and the heading is “A word about abstract art”

This piece caught my eye because it is a bit off from his usual beat, its focus is on art, precisely “abstract art”. In the post, he is providing clarity of what “abstract art” is and how to identify it from representational art. He points out that when searching for abstract art images on google some representational art images appear. Basically, he believes that there is a confusion between abstract art and representational art, so then he provides a definition of abstract art.

This definition was extracted from the glossary of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York which states abstract art as “A term that is generally used to describe art that is not representational or based on external reality or nature.”  He further explains “That means that abstract art is not a picture of anything–it can’t be tied to a representation of any recognizable object, animal or a person.” I believe that the explanation of the term he provided is simple for one to understand, but you cannot help the confusion, especially for someone who does not know a thing about art but just appreciate the paintings and drawings

 With the bit of confusion i had, I then made some diggings for the word ‘abstract’. When I googled the term abstract, this definition appeared “existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence”. I then went on google and searched ‘abstract art’ and that is then when I realized that I did not know much about art and indeed google does have images that are not abstract, but then again if abstract art is based on an artist’s imagination does that make an artist’s imagination of his or her mother an abstract art even though the person is recognizable?  Well maybe that is also abstract because the painting or drawing was not done in the presence of the person.

If one could not have an imagination of a person, I don’t believe dolls would be available but then again that is a subjective matter. I guess only artists can only tell me that. I believe that dolls were an imagination of a person of a ‘perfect’ human and not a drawing of a person, but I may be wrong. My main point here is that maybe google is not showing representational images of art but abstract ones. I make my point because of image six: Composition 8, Vasily Kandinsky (1923), the painting has shapes, the one I can easily identify is the triangle and I believe it can be tied to reality but because he imagined it, it is abstract.

He also touches on how the it came into being for artists to pursue abstract art. He explains that after the emergence of camera artists did not feel compelled to show something recognizable in their work and just focus on color, line, form, and texture. Basically, they have the freedom to run wild with their imagination and the camera was left to capture the recognizable for preservation of history. That is not to say artists stopped representational art. Knowing that the article would not be complete without the visuals because the post is about art he posted images towards the end of the post.

The images he provided showed what he means about representational and abstract art. The images are clearly label and have a brief explanation. I like that he mentioned representational art and examples of what representational is about. I feel like it provided the differences between representational and abstract art. For me, the post is well focused, and I would not have written it any better. Also, I like the fact that he put images to show representational art and the abstract ones. On representational images, he put image three: three musicians, Pablo Picasso (1921), this image one would have mistaken it to be abstract as he also states that, but he clarifies that it is not. I love that he also put images and classified them abstract and others representational and with stories behind the painting- the brief description. On the image parts, I would have loved to have seen some 21st-century paintings of abstract and representational art.

Nevertheless, the post is very effective for me. I have gained so much knowledge about the two different kinds of art. I now know that art has themes and I can be able to differentiate between abstract art and representational art. The post is well focused, and I would not have written it any better.

Below I have posted photos that I found on my own that represent abstract art and representational art

A representational art piece. These visuals can be tied to a person, insects and animal. photo credit: Canav logo maker: https://www.canva.com/

T There is a weird connection between mothers and dreams in 1999. The Guggenheim’s article describes the Mamam (1999) as a creature that escaped from a dream that has a powerful physical and psychological shadow. Well, my mother told me that having her firstborn in 1999, which is me was a dream come true. Discovering that she gave birth to a girl was the best because she knew that I will be the pillar. Zisanda is my name, meaning there is more to come and Louise Bourgeois continued making art pieces even after 1999.  As most artists get their inspiration from life experiences, emotions, environments and forth, Louise is no different from them.

 Louise Bourgeois main inspiration is her own life experiences as she says in her own words that, “Art is not about happy moments. Happy people have no stories, but if you have difficulties have trauma you keep repeating the trauma. You trying to process it, and that’s what fuels the work but there is no cure”.  Louise Bourgeois is a female artist who sculptured a magnificent spider piece, Mamam (1999) in memory of her late mother that she lost when she was 21 years old. Its these sad stories that influenced her work.

Louise’s art pieces are said to be the results of misery, trauma, fear and unhappy childhood she had. As she says, “I am not what I say. I am what I do”. She’s known as a complicated woman who has so much anger but very talented.. Her anger drives her to make these spectacular art pieces which are kind of strangely beautiful. She started making gigantic spiders that are disturbing but popular because they look like frictional movies’ creatures, and because of that they draw one’s attention.  The most spectacular one which attracted most attention is the Mamam (1999). The sculpture was a combination of her first drawing of a spider in 1947 and the continuity of 1996.

Mamam (1999) is a silver-grey steel three-dimensional sculptured spider which is 35 feet high and 33 fit wide which has an arachnid theme. The sculpture’s stomach and thorax are made up of textured bronze. Its abdomen has a sac that contains 32 marble eggs. This man-made spider is counted among the worlds’ most largest sculptured pieces. This magnificent piece was created in 1999 and featured in the inaugural commission of The Unilever Series of 2000, at London’s Tate Modern.

For Louise, a spider is clever, protective, patient, reasonable, useful hence she believed her mother who was a weaver possessed features of a spider. The sculptures’ big shadow portrays intimidation as she felt her mother was intimidating. She felt like she was beneath her mother, at the same time felt protected by her. The intimidation also portrays the strength of her mother and the ability to protect.

Ironically, the most interesting piece that was created in 1999 has a deep connection of a relationship between a mother and daughter. . Sculptured by a woman who was not well known but very talented. The inspiration behind was that of Louise’s pillar, her mother, of which is what my mother sees of me. Therefore mothers are care givers and the safest place for their children hence they are celebrated by their kids. As Louise has celebrated and crafted a piece that honored her mother, I too hope to honor my mother in a beautiful way too.