Campus Art Walk

Building A, The Bo Diddley Exhibit, The Presidents Gallery, and a bridge in Savannah. Significant art is everywhere and much closer than you think.

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"Hand With Reflecting Sphere"

This painting is located on one of the walls outside on building A. This painting is a self-portrait created by M.C. Escher. This painting is very Dionysian because of the creativity and mystery it invokes on those that view and analyze this painting. Self-appreciation, wonder, and venture into the illusion is all displayed and explored in the portrait. This is a dive into two different realities; the reality of the painter and the reality within the convex surface of the reflective sphere. When one looks at the painting and really scrutinizes the "interior" of the room it is visible that Eschers previous paintings are hung on the wall. He is curious of the idea of a portrait and wants the viewer to appreciate the distortion of reality and how reality may be a different idea for all of us. Interestingly enough, he is in the center of the painting. No matter how you turn the painting and view it he is always the main focus which details how brilliant his skill of centralizing a figure is in a distorted reality. Black and white shows a sort of binary and mysterious reality; it's either one way or another. Up or down. Left or right. White or black. Very interesting.

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Inside the Bo Diddley exhibit sits a particular artwork that drew my attention towards it. If you're thinking it was this to the left than you're wrong. I actually walked by this without giving it a second look. "Cameras and a collage...cool" I thought to myself. What really drew me in was the blueprint for his guitar that he built himself. What also drew me in was the replicated studio where he worked from. So why am I writing about this artwork that didn't call my attention? Well, that's precisely why I did it. People visiting the exhibit walked past it and didn't really give it any thought. Many people just levitated towards the grand and luxurious pieces in the exhibit; the ones that don't tell much about Diddley tend to be the ones with the more exaggerated presentation. This piece holds volume. It talks about Diddleys love for travel and photography! "I'm a Road Runner, Honey" shows that there is more than meets the eye. The collage of photographs contains moments of his life, moments that are crucial and interesting to see because of the different side of the musician. Many knew him as the musician that rose to the top with his eccentrics, but there was more to him. He was a fan of technology and adventure, and was actually one of the first African Americans to equip so many cameras to document his lifestyle. The five cameras that rest at the feet of the collage are those that Diddley equipped all his life. His intrigue to the world of technology was an important aspect to him and his musical career. This Dionysian artwork captures his other side. It creates an emotion of curiosity and intrigue. It makes one think what else might this man have done that relates to more of us.

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Found in the Presidents Gallery, this beautiful photograph of Santa Fe's Clock Tower lays semi-hidden for not many to observe and capture the beauty of the architecture in this school. So much symmetry, colorful balance, and movement for the eyes is captured in the photograph. One can't just look at this and not appreciate everything it has to offer. The original hues are used to really show nature being incorporated with man-mad structures. To show how beautiful in nature both things can coincide. The hues are strong and contrast but in a "balanced" way...if that makes any sense?? From the dark blue found at the edge of the photograph that constraints the sky towards the ground covered in dark greens; the center having a neutral pallet to keep the viewer in focus of the main subject. This piece is pure being. No interpretation needed. It captures the beauty of Floridas architecture within school bounds and the beautiful gift mother nature granted the sunshine state; the wonderful and enlightening greens and blues. The way the tower is layered with different materials to meet at the top is brilliant and aesthetically pleasing. This is the first thing visitors to the school see which is a welcome to the school and its grandeur. The sun is peeking through the hands of the trees in the left, inviting for a sense of serenity and calmness to the viewer. It enhances the welcome, making it warm and much more inviting. No one wants to be invited into a dark and dull home; a home that has light and color and beautiful architecture is more thrilling and pleasing. So much analysis and mathematical structure is involved in this photograph. Each segment of the picture is even in consistency and is balanced overall. The main focus covers top and bottom equally and does not try to tell a story. There is no need of an interpretation because this photograph speaks for itself in welcoming and flaunting the college. Truly a beautiful piece.

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Another piece from the Presidents Gallery is this curious photograph of a man and his pigeons. Black and white is so aesthetically pleasing, sometimes it holds meaning and purpose, other times it's just cool looking. As much as I want to analyze this photograph and say something meaningful about the decision to use black and white hues, I cant! It just looks cool and sometimes that's completely okay! Not everything in this world has to hold some sort of deeper philosophical meaning and interpretation. Sometimes the curtains are just blue! However, that doesn't mean that it doesn't invite Dionysian and becoming thinking. An elderly man leans forward to feed (presumably) the pigeons. Some fly away while others linger in curiosity away and towards the still man. It is interesting to point out how the floor is not leveled. The floor is diagonal and leans to the right side, as if it is too heavy to support and balance the objects on the left. Of course, this is purposeful and smart. The man is on the right side of the image, bigger and heavier than the rest of the pigeons; the pigeons seems to fly to the right and walk to the right as well. They all shift to the right of the image, creating an imbalance to the scale of the photograph. This way of thinking and creativity is just an open invitation for Dionysian effects. Mystery, curiosity, weight and volume, creativity and purpose. This parallels well with a becoming sense of story-telling. The photographer really understood how to use the positive and negative spaces effectively to produce an intrigue on the way subjects can cause a ripple in space and have much weight.

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The Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah, Georgia. Remarkable art that not many people would consider a second look or consider it art. When I visited Savannah for the first time this summer with my girlfriend, the first thing I noticed was the behemoth metal structure that trumped everything around it. It was visible from miles away and instantly recognizable. Being from down South Florida, I'm not accustomed to seeing such giant man-made structures. Of course there are skyscrapers but not a bridge that stands so tall over a body of water and can be visible so far away. I only have highways and small bridges where I'm from! This was absolutely flabbergasting!

The bridge was visible from my hotel room. I geeked over its beauty while my girlfriend brushed over it and smiled at my excitement towards it. Bridges are man made but very artistic. They serve a purpose of getting things from point A to point B, but nothing dictates that they should be large, gray, ugly structures. The linear movement of the bridge and the way the suspensions are aligned to hold the bridge up and suspend it in air is aesthetically pleasing. The way the engineer/architect designed the mode of transportation with ease movement of the eyes and balance and symmetry from onw end to another is appreciable.