The Synarts Gallery
By: Tim Howard
The new art gallery, called Synarts Cotillion, at Scott Hall has many different artist’s amazing art work from some of the fine students of the University of Alabama. Some of this great art goes from still pictures, to paintings, and even to a bale of paper shreds. The two main pieces of art that stuck out the most in this exhibit are the still picture of the world war two veterans and the guitar. These two different forms of art will give you just a hint of the experience you will get to have coming to this amazing art gallery.
The first piece of art that you get to see when you first walk into the gallery is the still framed picture of the world war two veteran. His hat indicates that he is a World war two veteran. When you first walk into the art gallery, the still framed picture is one of the first pieces that you get to see. All you see is his upper body, and all you think is “ok this guy fought in world war two, next piece of art.” Then as you keep on going into the art gallery, all you do is think more and more about the still framed picture of the world war two veteran.
You look at other pictures such as the four pictures of the horse as you keep waking through the gallery, but all you can think about it is the still framed picture of the World War two veteran. You then decide to walk back and look at it one more time. You notice something that you did not notice the first time. You look at his face and notice that the world war two veteran is not smiling. The picture takes you back to your memory of the “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo DaVinci. The still framed picture reminds you of the Mona Lisa because everyone wants to know about her mystic smile. So you look at this war veteran man who is not smiling. You then ask yourself “What is he thinking about?” You start to stare into his eyes and you start to visualize him thinking back to the war as he going on to the shores of Normandy, fighting for the freedom that we all get to have. The war veteran lives for his friends for fallen, but also he lives for freedom. It amazes you how such an ordinary picture has so much of an amazing meaning behind it.
After you have gotten something great from this plain, black and white, ordinary still framed picture of world war two veteran, you can’t wait to see what is next to come. As you keep moving through the art gallery, you then notice a smaller version of a guitar, but it does not look like any guitar that you have seen before. All other guitars that you have seen always have a straight neck, but the tuning of this guitars stringed area is turned back toward the wall as you observe it. The first reaction you have is that “I want to play this guitar.” The reason being is because it is just so different from any other guitar. You also notice that there are only 4 frets and you know that that is a lot less than any normal acoustic guitar. You wonder what type of pitch or sound this little guitar could bring.
You look to the side and find a description saying that the artist, Anden Oben, based this piece of art off of a thirteenth century piece guitar made by Hans Frei of Turkey. As you keep thinking looking at it you notice the center of the guitar looks like the like a Catholic Church window. Then you look toward the back of the guitar and the way that it is shaped reminds you of an onion as it is shaped like a bulb. It at first just looks like wood flooring. This is as in the each piece of would is put side by side the way you would see on flooring and it somehow takes a round shape on the base of the guitar.
Once you have left this glorious art display you think about how the two writers took there approach on there art. With the still framed picture of the world war two veteran it seemed that there was not much real effort put into it the art. Although because we knew through his hat that he was a world war two veteran we can relate what he could have through what he might have see compared to a veteran who fought during the Korean war. Also getting to talk to one of the other artist in the synarts, Laura Shill, She explained that the artist took some pictures of these world war two veterans and it was just one the person liked. This does somewhat bring the art down because there was no special meaning behind her art, but people make art come to life not artist in that people connect what they feel and what they think a piece of art means.
The second piece of art, the extravagant guitar seemed like that without a doubt had many hours put into to it and all of its art was very visual and easy to see were the artist was going with his piece. Talking to Scott Jarrett, another Synart artist, told me about this piece done by Anden Oben, I found out that he makes instruments for a living and also teaches in the music department. Unlike the still framed picture, Mr. Oben did build this piece of art and wanted it to look different from regular guitars basing off this older version of guitar. The way Mr. Oben did this is through the neck, the center piece that looks like a Catholic Church window, and the base of the guitar.
The Synarts art gallery is an amazing exhibit to go and see. It gives you a feel of some of the different artist around the University of Alabama. The still framed picture of the world war two veteran and the guitar is just giving you a taste of some of the many amazing art in this exhibit. There are also other amazing art from abstract pictures to a bale of paper shreds. The exhibit is one o the many great new exhibits here in the capstone. Come and enjoy something new in visiting the Synarts gallery.
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3 comments:
SARAH R.- GROUP 4
Based simply on content your essay was great, you used vivid details so that I was able to visualize the Veteran's somber expression. However your essay did not have a smooth flow. Your paragraphs would begin to talk about the Veteran and suddenly switch to the guitar. I feel that you should have your introduction, discuss in detail each picture separately, and then tie them together by saying the similar feelings that the pieces arouse, followed by your conclusion. Also watch your grammar you misspelled World War II on numerous occasions. Not only that but you had a few other grammatical errors that stood out for example: you had o instead of the word of. I know that once you’ve completed your paper you feel done with it. However, once posting it if you just simply re-read you will catch your mistakes which are simple ones. Overall your paper would receive a score of seventy-two. If you just reorganize a few paragraphs and proof read you can dramatically increase your grade.
On that that note I also wanted to commend you on using historical facts. That really grabbed my attention, because I felt that you were an expert. Because you took the time to state facts that are of good quality I feel you have a good background on analyzing art.
Good Luck to you. Roll Tide!
Melissa Lovell
For the most part your paper was very well written. I could only find a few things that needed to be worked on. In the first few paragraphs you kind of jump around with your ideas and what you are saying. You are also very repetitive. When you talk about the first piece of art you mention that it is the first thing that you see right when you walk in, and then two sentences later you mention again that it is the first thing you see when you walk into the gallery. You may just want to take that part of the sentence out from the second sentence where you used it. You may also want to make sure that the paper flows. I think that if you just read the paper before you finish you can see where you are jumping around and you can fix those problems. In the second paragraph you mention that the first thing that you see when you walk in the gallery is the painting of the World War 2 veteran. You then say we know this because of his hat and then you say again that it is the first piece of art that you see when you walk in the gallery. The statement about the hat does not really fit in at that point of the paragraph.
You did some things really well in the paper to. You are very descriptive when it comes to the art. When you describe the guitar, I feel as though I am sitting there looking at the piece of art myself. That makes your paper very vivid and interesting to read. You also tell us how the art makes you feel and that helps a person find out what they are feeling. When you used what the artists said from when they came into class, you let us into their world and it makes the art become even more interesting. I think that you did really well on this paper.
Tim,
Overall your paper is very strong. The details describing the guitar and the picture of the Vietnam vet are very precise. I could actually imagine what expression the man’s face had, and the shape of the guitar. There are however some things that if added would progress your paper even more. In the beginning, your ideas seem to be scattered. In one paragraph you talk about the Vietnam vet, and then you are all of a sudden talking about the guitar. I think that you should organize your thoughts a little more. Try and talk about the veteran, get all your ideas in, then transition to the guitar, and how they relate to one another. Another thing you can do to enhance your paper is re-read it and fix all the mechanical errors, such as spelling, commas, and things like that! Overall, your paper is very strong and vivid. I think you did a great job and I really enjoyed reading it!
Meredith
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