block printOVERVIEWTitle: Habitat Within
Size (cm): 15 x 23 Medium: Hand carved linoleum block with black water based ink Date of Completion: October 2023 EXHIBITION TEXTHabitat Within is a visual representation of my ideal home, which I view as a sanctuary closely connected to nature, contrasting against the uniform and unwelcoming nature of society. This piece relates to humankind in general, and the tendency to stay within one's comfort zone. Inspiration for this work includes Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's Stadtbild aus Sowest, and Lyonel Feininger's Paris Houses. The composition was carved into a linoleum block, and black ink was applied to create the print.
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inspiration
I started my search for inspiration by looking through the art book Varieties of Visual Experience, by Edmund Burke Feldman. In this book I found a photo (left) of an architectural design by Antoni Gaudi, titled Casa Batllo. This house is located in Barcelona, and considered one of Gaudi's masterpieces. I found the building both striking and intriguing, and was drawn in by the unique thick, curved lines separating the floors, as well as the element of nature that seemed present through the texture on the house. Although this work is not in the same medium I am using, I knew I wanted to incorporate the style of the house in my piece. At this point I decided to carve a house for my block print. Based on the feelings of comfort and safety I got from looking at this piece, I was inspired to do a block print that depicted my ideal house, with the sense of protection that humans seek in their homes. Gaudi designed Casa Batllo to have humanlike features, such as surrealistic eyelids, and I wanted to apply the same humanness to my house design.
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Once I had a rough idea of the concept I wanted to pursue, I did research on block prints of houses and city scapes, to help visualize how they are depicted in this medium. The first piece I found was Stadtbild aus Soest, which translates to Cityscape from Soest, and was made by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, a German Expressionist.
The German Expressionist movement was greatly influenced by World War I and the concept of war and violence in general. Most German Expressionist pieces can be characterized by distorted forms and strong contrasts between black and white. They are often forms of social criticism, and therefore are more negative forms of expression. Cities in particular can be used to embody corruption, agony and suffering. In Stadtbild aus Soest, however, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff created a more positive depiction of a city, making it seem alive and energetic. Thematically, his work related to my idea more than typical German Expressionist work, because I was not aiming to be pessimestic. I wanted to express how my idea of a home compares with the style and energy some cities have and how this connects to human nature. Stylistically, I did not draw much inspiration from this piece, aside from deciding to make the sky black. This piece places an emphasis on two churches, while I wanted my piece to only have one main focus. Also, the movement is circular, starting with the church on the right, and rotating clockwise. I knew I wanted to draw the viewer's eye from the main house outwards, to the contrasting buildings. The last main difference is the human figures at the bottom, which I knew I didn't want to include in my composition. |
The block print I drew the most city scape stylistic inspiration from is Paris Houses, by Lyonel Feininger, another German Expressionist. The composition of this piece consists of buildings crowded together. Unlike Stadtbuild, there is less variation in the types of buildings. They are all skinny, tall and have layers of rectangular windows. The use of line in this piece feels a bit erratic due to the broken, jagged texture of the sky and road. I wanted to eliminate a lot of this line usage in my piece, making it cleaner and easier to detect where one building ends and another one starts. The perspective of this piece is different from the first, taking a straight on approach, but the buildings still have depth to them, which I chose to incorporate in my idea. The balance is also much more symmetrical than Stadtbild aus Soest. The main contrast in this piece comes from the black building in the center compared with the surrounding white buildings. I wanted my contrast to be similar, with the center house being different from the surroudings, however I decided to show this through shape instead of color. Paris Houses presents the uniformity of cities I wanted to display in my work, and looking at this piece helped me visualize what uniformity looks like in an urban environment. When I first saw this piece, I was overwhelmed, mainly by the use of line, but it gave me the intimidating feeling of a city I hoped to present in my print.
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Planning
First sketchInitially, I wanted my block print to depict a house that I view as my sanctuary. An expression of what I personally value in a home, which is comfort, protection from the unknown, and a connection to nature. These values are not solely mine, but relate to the culture of my family. We value comfort over looks, whether this is the visual appearance of clothing, or a home. I also wanted to convey a common aspect human nature, which is to stay within one's comfort zone. This can be shown by physically staying within the borders of a safe place, such as a house. The house also serves as a more abstract symbol, representing the tendency of humans to avoid exposing themselves to unfamiliar situations.
For this first sketch, I drew inspiration from the elements of Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo. I created a curved roof, similar to the thick lines separating the different levels of the Gaudi's house. I also applied texture to my house to make it seem more connected to the Earth. My texture is more obviously nature related, since it is leaf vines, compared to the circular texture in the stone of the Casa Batllo. The balcony with the curved fence is a feature directly borrowed from Casa Batllo, and while the windows are not the exact same, I was inspired by the rounded edges and unsymmetrical design. In this first sketch I drew the house over a river, which is symbolic of the murkiness and uncertainty the world contains, adding to the feeling of intimidation. |
Second SketchFor my second sketch, I took the design of the house from the first one and made it smaller, surrounding it by other buildings. This is when I started to apply inspiration from the city scape block prints, mainly Paris Houses. The large, stacked rectangular windows, the thin, tall windows separated by lines to show levels, and the different sized windows side by side were all inspired by the window design in this print. The thinner, horizontal line texture of two of the buildings was based on the use of thin lines in Stadtbild aus Soest. I eliminated the river from the first sketch, and drew an ordinary road, which I felt placed the buildings in a more realistic environment. One element I added was the smokestacks, which I included to show additional contrast between the nature depicted in my house. The buildings, while designed differently, all have harsh lines and appear colder and not as welcoming as the center house.
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finalized sketchI continued to revise my second sketch to create a finalized draft. I was advised to make the lines thicker, since this would make it easier to carve. After going back over them with pencil, I realized I liked the bolder lines, which created a cleaner, more finished look, and put more emphasis on the contrast between the geometric shaped buildings and the organic house. Showing this difference was essential in conveying my message of sanctuary within unfamiliar environments. The notes surrounding the image show my thought process while sketching. One of my main intentions was creating a piece that others can relate to, even if their ideal home doesn't exactly look like mine, but when they look they can understand the deeper meanings of comfort and protection.
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Process
Stage 1 : Transfer
I wanted to transfer my sketch to my linoleum reversed, so the final ink print is facing the way it was originally intended to. In order to transer it this way, I first had to go over it using tracing paper. I taped the paper directly in my sketchbook to avoid sliding.
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I went over the entire composition, outlining it in pencil. I did not shade in dark areas during this stage, because it was unnecessary additional work. I felt I was extremely successful in accurately tracing my sketch.
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Next, I removed the tracing paper from the sketchbook. I then ripped out a separate piece of paper from my sketchbook, cut it to the linoleum size, and heavily shaded one side with pencil. I taped the shaded side directly to the linoleum, and then flipped my traced sketch, and taped that on top of the paper.
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After I finished tracing onto the linoleum block, I removed the tracing paper and the paper with graphite. The image had transferred successfully onto the block. At this point I decided to color in the black parts with a sharpie, to show which parts should be carved. In a few spots, I accidentally colored outside the lines (below) but I had planned to carve those areas out anyway, so it did not have a huge effect on the piece.
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Stage 2 : Carving
The diagram above shows the different carving tools and which areas I used them in. The three I utilized are highlighted, while the other two, although I tested them, were not used. The flat tool on the left was ineffective for what I was trying to carve, and the fourth tool from the left was similar to the third one, but was too wide for small areas, and in the wider areas I preferred the last tool.
The image on the left shows the finest tool in action. This was the perfect size for the thin horizontal white lines and small areas of white. I did not press hard when using this tool, because a thin layer removed was all that was necessary, and pushing harder could result in too large of a carving. On the right, the wider and deeper tool is being used to carve a larger white area. I found this tool was especially useful for straight edges (more in experimentation).
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Stage 3 : Printing
The printing setup is shown on the left. I first spread the ink on the tray using the palette knife, then used the roller to spread it out, while accumulating a thin layer on the roller itself. This part was key, because then I applied the roller to my linoleum block. At first I struggled with applying an even layer, but through experimentation found the best method. Once the block was covered, I took the blank white sheet and centered it over the block. Using the red tool, I applied pressure over the entire sheet. I found through trial and error that more pressure for longer is the best approach. The final step was removing the white paper and flipping it over to reveal the print.
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After my first two prints, I could see there were areas on the block that were not properly carved. This created extra lines on the prints. Since these lines were not part of the original composition, they were problematic, especially for the surrouding cityscape. These buildings are supposed to appear cold, clean, and almost mechanical, creating the unhumanness feeling. This is represented by stark black and white contrast, not thin texture scattered throughout the white. After rinising the block off with water, I targeted the circled areas to fix the lines, and went back to the carving stage. There were also some black smudges creeping into the white areas, but this was caused by the block being layered twice with ink without rinsing inbetween.
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Experimentation
When I first started carving, I approached rectangles by starting at the bottom, and carving upwards. However, I did not have a technique for ending the carve. I just stopped moving the tool upward, but was then left with linoleum still attached to the board, as shown in the photo on the left. The first technique I tried was simply pulling the shred off, but this left a horrible indent on the black line, shown in the photo on the right. I found a few solutions to this:
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1. Start easing the pressure the closer to the border the carve is going. Then pull the shard off the block. Because it isn't as deep at the end, the indent isn't created. Then go the opposite direction of the rest of the carvings to create a clean edge.
2. Start the carve from one end, and then come from the other direction to complete it. This was a good method for making the carve equally deep on both ends, but was difficult to execute.
3. Carve around the edge of the border before carving out the center area. Start in one spot, then curve the tool around the corners and end in the starting spot. From there, carve out the middle. This is the most effective solution, because it creates clean edges and even carves with the least room for error.
2. Start the carve from one end, and then come from the other direction to complete it. This was a good method for making the carve equally deep on both ends, but was difficult to execute.
3. Carve around the edge of the border before carving out the center area. Start in one spot, then curve the tool around the corners and end in the starting spot. From there, carve out the middle. This is the most effective solution, because it creates clean edges and even carves with the least room for error.
At first I held this carving tool perfectly straight when carving, which was effective for some areas but in others left thin strips along the edges. Through experimentation I found the best way to hold the tool is tilted to the slide so the blade is right against the border. This produces a clean edge with minimal effort. After this discovery I went back and redid some lines to eliminate messy craftsmanship.
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Printing
As mentioned in the final stages of the process, the first two prints had too many additional lines due to an incomplete carving job. I found with the first print I did not use enough ink, which is shown by the white areas that are supposed to be black. The second print had too much ink because I had not rinsed inbetween printing. After going back and carving more, I continued making prints, which are shown below. Each one had something wrong with it.
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This was a result of not enough ink and not enough pressure.
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To compensate for the last print, I then added too much ink. I rolled the roller for longer than usual and also added more layers than normal.
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I was rinising the plate with water between each print, but before this print I added soap. I thought the soap contributed to the lack of ink printing, but then I realized I may not have dried it thorougly enough, so the ink was repelled.
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There was enough pressure added because I applied it evenly with the barren, but there was a lack of ink in some areas that resulted in white.
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This was a fairly good print, but there was not enough ink, and it was also very off center and tilted.
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This was the best print of the series of attempts, but there was a large smudge on the top, it was off center, and it was a little too heavy on the ink.
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Through reviewing these errors, I found the best method of printing involved the following steps:
1. Wash the print beforehand thoroughly with soap and water to eliminate ink from past prints, oil from hands, and graphite.
2. Dry the print completely off with paper towels and let it dry for a few more minutes to remove moisture.
3. Add a palette knife full of ink to the tray and roll evenly.
4. Once the roller has a complete layer of ink over it, add a thin layer over the entire block.
5. Add more ink to the roller, and keep rolling over the block until all of the black areas are covered with shiny ink.
6. Take the white paper and center the block by looking underneath and moving it around, making the best estimate possible.
7. Push the barren down and apply pressure to the entire paper, focusing on the edges, until the black outline can be seen.
8. Carefully lift the edges up to check, and if there is enough ink, remove the paper.
1. Wash the print beforehand thoroughly with soap and water to eliminate ink from past prints, oil from hands, and graphite.
2. Dry the print completely off with paper towels and let it dry for a few more minutes to remove moisture.
3. Add a palette knife full of ink to the tray and roll evenly.
4. Once the roller has a complete layer of ink over it, add a thin layer over the entire block.
5. Add more ink to the roller, and keep rolling over the block until all of the black areas are covered with shiny ink.
6. Take the white paper and center the block by looking underneath and moving it around, making the best estimate possible.
7. Push the barren down and apply pressure to the entire paper, focusing on the edges, until the black outline can be seen.
8. Carefully lift the edges up to check, and if there is enough ink, remove the paper.
Critique
first inspiration
compareGaudi created a fascinating house full of symbolism, but his intention was for each person to have their own interpretion. This is similar to Habitat Within, because I know what the house represents to me, but I want the viewer to create their own connection. There are visual similarities too, such as the crooked looking balcony fence, which is directly borrowed from Casa Batllo. Also, the leaves on the outside of the house, the curvy windows, arched doorway and wavy roof are all similar to Gaudi's piece. He draws the viewer's attention to the center of the house with the elaborate window design, then the eye travels down to the simpler doorways, similar to my piece. In other words, he placed emphasis on the windows of the house, through peculiar shapes and textures, which what I aimed to do. Despite the differences in the house features, there is unity that aligns all of them, because they are organically shaped and natural looking. This same type of unity is present in my work as well.
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contrastThe biggest difference between my piece and Gaudi's is the medium. I created a linoleum block print and he constructed a life sized house made of cermaic, stone and glass. Consequently, his piece consists of more colors than just the black and white of mine. Overall his hues are warm, which is the opposite of the cool black and white. The contrast of my piece is much more obvious, with stark black and white differences, while Casa Batllo has more subtle contrasts, such as green leaves against the beige stone. My composition consists of a house similar to Casa Batllo in the center, but is surrounded by several other geometrically shaped buildings with a harsher use of line. Gaudi's piece only consists of one building.
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second inspiration
compareStylistically, Habitat Within does not have much in common with this piece. They are both block prints with black ink, and the road and sky of both pieces are black. Additionally, there are areas of thin black and white lines contrasting. In my piece the building in the top right has this texture, and in Stadtbild aus Soest the house in the lower left corner shows a similar design. The composition of Stadtbild aus Soest consists of numerous houses in a city scape style, and not all the houses are fully shown because houses in the forefront of the piece overlap with them. This same composition was adopted in my piece. The concept behind this piece was a deviation from typical German Expressionsim meaning, because the city is supposed to display energy instead of poverty or depression. Part of my concept involved the center house showing a form of energy, and similar to Karl Schmidt-Rottluff I did not aim to make a pessimistic piece.
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contrastOne major component that is different between my piece and Stadtbild aus Soest is the prescence of people. Habitat Within is devoid of humans, while there are two human forms shown in Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's piece. Most of the texture also varies. There are bold white lines in multiple directions to show the energy of the sky, while my sky is stark black except for the two smokestacks emitting smoke. The road in my piece also has signficantly less white. Also, Schmidt - Rottluff's use of line is different, as he leaves a lot of thin, overlapping vertical lines, and my lines are thicker and more defined, and are mostly horizontal. I focus more on window design, he focuses more on the shape of the house. The perspective of my piece is straight on, showing some depth to the buildings, but he shows a side view of the buildings created by the road dividing the sides of the street. Lastly, Schmidt-Rottluff creates an equally balanced emphasis between the two churches in Stadtbild aus Soest, while emphasis in Habitat Within is placed on the center house.
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third inspiration
compareMost of the stylistic choices of the surrounding buildings were derived from Paris Houses. Feininger placed emphasis on the center building, just as I did in Habitat Within. The texture of the road is similar, with thin lines scattered throughout. The types of windows between the two pieces are also similar. On the leftmost building in Paris Houses, there are rows of rectangular windows separated by two horizontal lines. I directly borrowed this, as well as other designs, including the two large squares sharing an edge, the mismatched lines forming window frames, and the ordinary squares. Additionally, the perspective of this piece is similar to mine, since it is a straight on view from the road of buildings crowded together.
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contrastWhile I took a lot of stylistic inspiration from Paris Houses, there are several areas that contrast. The skies are significantly different, as the sky I created is black and solid and Feininger's sky is white with several black diagonal lines. This provides a more intimidating and ominous feeling to my piece, while the sky in Paris Houses is more open and welcoming. Although I used a lot of window designs from Feininger's piece, the use of line in the two pieces mostly varies. His lines are thinner, almost always go on a diagonal, and overlap to create a feeling of chaos. My lines are more solid, straighter, and the contrast between black and white is more obvious. The hatching Feininger uses almost creates hues other than black and white, but I do not utilize this in my piece. Lastly, the method of creating contrast from surrounding buildings to the center building is different. Feininger utilized color to create a contrast, with the center building being black and the surrounding ones being white. All my buildings are white with black details. Instead I used organic shapes in the center house to contrast against the surrounding geometric features.
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reflection
This project helped me develop multiple new skills in all areas of the creation process. The technical aspect was challenging because I had never carved linoleum before or printed a block. Through trial and error I gained insight on how to properly and effectively use each of the carving tools. Because of my inexperience, there are several flaws in the linoleum where I accidently carved into a black area. However, these are not too noticeable, so they are not distracting from the piece. Some of these mistakes were fixable by carving away additional black between the white area and the accidental mark, to simply make it a larger white area than originally planned. The amount of pressure to use while carving was also a skill that took awhile to develop and resulted in some errors. One successful technical skill I learned was how to carve clean edges. I spent a lot of time experimenting with how to hold the tool, and eventually was easily able to make straight lines. Despite this success, it was difficult to refine the carvings in really small areas, such as the window shutters, to achieve clean craftsmanship. Another challenge was the transferring of my sketch to the linoleum. Since I wanted my final print to face the same direction as the sketch, I had to add another step with tracing paper so I could transfer the image to the block reversed. It took awhile to figure out how to do this, and put me behind because it was time consuming. The printing process itself brought a whole new set of challenges. Every aspect had to be just right in order to make a successful print. It took multiple tries, and even the end product wasn't perfect, as there were a few areas of ink that weren't heavy enough, and some detailed areas that had too much ink. Eventually I had to accept that I wouldn't be able to create a flawless print. I was content with that at the end, because handmade artwork always has small imperfections, which just demonstrates how a human created the piece.
This is the first project I've done with researching inspiration and applying that to my work. Also, this is the first time I came up with a thematic connection and deeper meaning behind my piece. I really enjoyed this part of the process and found it easier to make art when I had a personal connection. However, it was challenging to conceptualize a piece in my mind and actually get ideas down on paper. I utilized skills from art history to complete the planning sketches, and I applied my knowledge of the German Expressionism Movement while I was doing research. I feel my piece connects in some way to all three inspiration works. The center house was inspired by Antoni Gaudi's architecture, and the block prints of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Lyonel Feininger influenced my surrounding cityscape, sky and road. In general, I'm pleased with my work and I appreciate the uniqueness of the medium compared to my other pieces. I enjoyed physically creating something, in this case the block, that was used to make the final product, the print. I hope Habitat Within makes the viewer wonder, but I also want them to form a connection and get the feeling of comfort from the piece that I get as the artist.
This is the first project I've done with researching inspiration and applying that to my work. Also, this is the first time I came up with a thematic connection and deeper meaning behind my piece. I really enjoyed this part of the process and found it easier to make art when I had a personal connection. However, it was challenging to conceptualize a piece in my mind and actually get ideas down on paper. I utilized skills from art history to complete the planning sketches, and I applied my knowledge of the German Expressionism Movement while I was doing research. I feel my piece connects in some way to all three inspiration works. The center house was inspired by Antoni Gaudi's architecture, and the block prints of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Lyonel Feininger influenced my surrounding cityscape, sky and road. In general, I'm pleased with my work and I appreciate the uniqueness of the medium compared to my other pieces. I enjoyed physically creating something, in this case the block, that was used to make the final product, the print. I hope Habitat Within makes the viewer wonder, but I also want them to form a connection and get the feeling of comfort from the piece that I get as the artist.
Act
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
My inspiration came from Antoni Gaudi, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Lyonel Feininger, and I borrowed several stylistic elements from them that can be seen in my work. These include the organic, uniquely shaped houses from Gaudi's architecture, the contrasting thin black and white lines from Schmidt-Rottluff's print, and the harsher, geometric use of line and perspective in Feininger's print.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Antoni Gaudi created Casa Batllo to evoke joy in the viewer, as it is a house representing a fantastical world. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff created Stadbilt aus Soest to show the vibrancy and energy a city environment has. Lyonel Feininger had a similar approach by conveying characteristics of an urban environment.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Urban environments can have different meanings depending on the person. The idea of a home is also interpreted differently, but generally is seen as a symbol of comfort and safety. Entire movements can have a typical style of depicting a city, such as German Expressionism depicting cities in a pessimestic light.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
I was looking to explore how homes are sanctuaries in unfamiliar or intimidating environments, such as crowded cities and urban environments.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Lyonel Feininger wanted to convey the chaos of cities through his erratic use of line. I made other inferences about the artist's meaning based on their use of artistic elements and principles.
My inspiration came from Antoni Gaudi, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Lyonel Feininger, and I borrowed several stylistic elements from them that can be seen in my work. These include the organic, uniquely shaped houses from Gaudi's architecture, the contrasting thin black and white lines from Schmidt-Rottluff's print, and the harsher, geometric use of line and perspective in Feininger's print.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Antoni Gaudi created Casa Batllo to evoke joy in the viewer, as it is a house representing a fantastical world. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff created Stadbilt aus Soest to show the vibrancy and energy a city environment has. Lyonel Feininger had a similar approach by conveying characteristics of an urban environment.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Urban environments can have different meanings depending on the person. The idea of a home is also interpreted differently, but generally is seen as a symbol of comfort and safety. Entire movements can have a typical style of depicting a city, such as German Expressionism depicting cities in a pessimestic light.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
I was looking to explore how homes are sanctuaries in unfamiliar or intimidating environments, such as crowded cities and urban environments.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Lyonel Feininger wanted to convey the chaos of cities through his erratic use of line. I made other inferences about the artist's meaning based on their use of artistic elements and principles.
bibliography
Anadol, R. (2023). The façade. Casa Batlló. Retrieved October 17, 2023, from https://www.casabatllo.es/en/antoni-gaudi/casa-batllo/facade/
Anadol, R. (2023). Works of Antoni Gaudí. Casa Batlló. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.casabatllo.es/en/antoni-gaudi/works/
Cleveland Museum of Art. (2018, May 13). Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper | Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art |. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/graphic-discontent-german-expressionism-paper
Schmidt-Rottluff, K. (2023). Stadtbild aus Soest | Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art |. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.230
Anadol, R. (2023). Works of Antoni Gaudí. Casa Batlló. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.casabatllo.es/en/antoni-gaudi/works/
Cleveland Museum of Art. (2018, May 13). Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper | Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art |. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/graphic-discontent-german-expressionism-paper
Schmidt-Rottluff, K. (2023). Stadtbild aus Soest | Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art |. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.230