Art director

corporate sponsor's decision to pull funding was justified. The answer? No. Considering both the role of art in society and specific message behind this play, the sponsors were wrong for pulling the funds. As stated in the article, “The role of Art and the Artist”, by Edgar H. Schein, Schein writes that art’s role is not just to be beautiful, but that it should, “disturb, provoke, and inspire.” (3) Art has always had the role to…

Alwin Nikolais: Visual Artist Extraordinaire Alwin Nikolais was a modern dance genius whose contributions to dance as an art form are numerous. Known for his innovative dance works and performances, he was a master of all trades who wanted to encompass a variety of visual and auditory art forms to create one large spectacle. Many considered him to be a pioneer of modern dance, and Anna Kisselgoff, a journalist and dance critic, was quoted in The New York Times obituary for Nikolais as saying:…

taking the stance of his work as being technically beautiful as well as arguing that he uses photography to push our popular perceptions of sexuality and fine art. The first conflict that Robert Mapplethorpe faced was the age of photography itself. Photography has not been around for very long. In fact, it was not fully considered or recognized an art form throughout the 19th century do to it being the most mechanical (not to mention newest) of mediums. Liz Wells acknowledges this argument,…

One of the best parts of working on exhibitions drawn from the ZMA’s extensive permanent collection is the opportunity it provides for a look at some of the hidden gems at the museum. During the preparation of Sketching American Modernism, I discovered a painting that captured my interest. The work was the Portrait of Mrs. Helen McCoy Storer, c. 1910 by Charles Alden Gray (1857-1933). While arguably not by one of the most well-known artists in our collection, it was, at that moment, the most…

In their book “Scenic Art for the Theatre: History, Tools and Techniques”, Susan Crabtree and Peter Beudert emphasized, “Don’t draw things; draw relationships. It’s so simple: just put every brush stroke in the right place.” The quotation basically summarizes the job of a scenic designer, who is responsible for bringing the world of the production onto the stage. The scenic designer (or set designer) is expected to fulfill five basic goals in order to design an overall concept for the play.…

The “Art" of Censorship Award winning film Escape from the "Liberty" Cinema directed by Polish director, Wojciech Marczewski in 1990. It opens the audience eyes to social concepts through the work of comical satire of the communist party. Directed just after the end of communism in Poland, the film itself encompasses humor and allusions that help illustrate the artistic restrains that took place during that time. Many might be familiar with the work of Woody Allen and see elements from his…

rarely deviated from it. It was a tough task to locate articles that discussed her and her artwork, but it was done. Reading all of these sources it was established that Waring loved illustrating an abundant amount. By looking at a lot of her works of art, it showed that her main form of painting was portraits. Such as:“Portrait of Jessie Redmon Fauset,” 1945, “Portrait of Marian Anderson,” 1944, and “Portrait of W.E.B. DuBois”, n/d. Bibliography James discussed some of the achievements that…

contain horrific ideas. The ideas represented in their art and the disgusting medium they use to create it make them they controversial artist that they are. Seranno and Witkin view art in a different way than most, for the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The two artists have created…

Located at the Phoenix Art Museum is a unique work that was purchased “with funds donated by Jan and Howard Hendler” and created by Yayoi Kusama in 2005. The piece is titled You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies and is a “mixed media installation with LED lights” that was created as a permanent piece to the Phoenix Art Museum’s collection. The work can be found in the South Wing on the Upper Level in the Contemporary Art section of the museum. The intention of this…

hearts beating. They were nervous, very nervous. They gathered their flags and headed to warm-up. They were awful quiet for a group of teenage girls, but rightly so, they were about to perform their first winter guard show. Myself and the other co-directors, gave instructions that they listened to very carefully. “Smile, chin up, and have fun.” The girls responded with multiple anxious questions. My words gave them short term comfort as I watched their smiles’ peak out of their flush cheeks, and…