INTRODUCTION
Art appreciation is something that takes an understanding to fully grasp how much it takes for a piece of art to be presentable. Before taking Chem Art (Chem 319), we had no idea of all the time and preparation it takes to produce a piece of art. We soon found out that an artist can sometimes take several months and even years to finish one painting. One of the goals Dr. Mabrouk has for this class is to have her students appreciate art and understand all that goes into creating a masterpiece.
SPEAKER
We had the privilege of meeting and listening to Ms. Celia Childress, her thoughts and beliefs on art appreciation. Celia Childress is an artist herself who knows and loves art. She focused on the differences and similarities between art and crafts. She thinks that crafts are something that one makes in numerous quantities in order to sell. She sees art as anything that has emotional value to the artist. The artists must make the piece out of an emotional drive rather than for a financial profit to be labeled art. She showed us several examples of various crafts she has collected over the years; these are depicted in all of the above pictures except the first one and those below. The first photograph above isa painting of Ms. Celia Childress; she showed us several of her own paintings, including one in progress. Of course there was tea and homemade breads to go along with the presentation.
FIELD TRIP
The art gallery field trip was the first time in an art gallery for a lot of the class. It was interesting to see all the different styles of art displayed. While looking at the oil paintings we looked at it from far away and could make out the artist's intent with the final product. Then we got closer to the artwork, to see the painting as the artist would while painting, and it really is amazing how it looks like a mess from up close, but yet the artist can still envision the final outcome from that close. We visited the following art galleries: Addison Hatfield, Charles II, Fraser Fox Fine Art, Lowcountry Artists, One of A Kind Art & Fine Craft Gallery, Smith-Killian Fine Art. Some galleries featured local artists while others featured the more mainstream artists. In The Lowcountry Artists Gallery we actually met one of the local artists; this gallery is attended by a different local artist of that gallery each day. She told us that she likes to paint familiar places in Charleston, but loves painting Italy scenery. On the tour, we saw all different types of art from modern to classical paintings, blown glass, bronze statues, photography, and even wooden and glass sculptures. Overall the art gallery tour was very interesting and help us understand and appreciate art a little bit better.
