Brian Toms in Digital Imaging I

That Explains It!

I went to the doctor. He x-rayed my head.

He stared for a moment and here's what he said.

"It looks like you've got a banana in there,

an apple, an orange, a peach, and a pear.

I also see something that looks like a shoe,

a plate of spaghetti, some fake doggy doo,

an airplane, an arrow, a barrel, a chair,

a salmon, a camera, some old underwear,

a penny, a pickle, a pencil, a pen,

a hairy canary, a hammer, a hen,

a whistle, a thistle, a missile, a duck,

an icicle, bicycle, tricycle, truck.

With all of the junk that you have in your head

it's kind of amazing you got out of bed.

The good news, at least, is you shouldn't feel pain.

From what I can see here you don't have a brain."

--Kenn Nesbitt

Cui Xiuwen, Cindy Sherman, and Frida Kahlo were all talented artists and were able to illustrate the issues in each of their cultures during different time periods. I feel as though each of these artists have the struggle of women as a prominent subject that they each are trying to illustrate. Of course each artwork will not have the same issues because they are all from different time periods, they are all from different cultural backgrounds, and they all use a different medium to create their art.

My favorite artist is probably Cui Xiuwen because, although she has a message that she tries to make with each of her pieces, her work is very interpretive. Her exhibit references to her subject as an angel and is very compelling and can be interpreted in many different ways. I do find her pieces to be slightly controversial because she refers this young girl as an angel but she is pregnant. I believe that the issue she is addressing in this exhibit is mostly about teen pregnancy. The textbook definition of an angel would include something about purity when the subject of teen pregnancy is about the removal of purity and innocence. It is also refreshing to see artists using today’s software technology to create art because I have not been exposed to many of the processes used to create traditional art. I do like the fact that Xiuwen is taking advantage of software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create her work.

Cindy Sherman is another fascinating artist because she contemplated and compared the use of different medians for the specific work she was going to create. She took the level respect held for each type of median she could have used and decided that photography was right for her because it wasn’t too highly regarded. Through reading her interviews I believe that she had fun with her artwork although it was meant to portray a serious message. The way she speaks of her cliché photographs they are really depicting stereotypes that men actually have of women. The issues may have been more relevant of that time than now but these gender stereotypes or gender roles are slowly being reduced. I like that this artist chose to use photography because it levels the playing field in a way but again, one must know a lot about composition to create a good photograph.

In the biography of Frida Kahlo we learn that she was the child of a German father and a Mexican mother. Most of her work was about herself, tragedies of the time, family and culture. Paint was the medium that was probably the most popular at the time that she used for her art. The artwork of Kahlo, in a way, illustrated some of the common issues that other women were facing at that time such as failed marriages and miscarriages. Her life experiences and cultural heritage really helped to create fascinating artwork. Her one painting, Roots, is very literal because it is just an image of her on the ground with vines or roots growing around her. I feel that her cultural roots have significance in this painting and she is illustrating the importance that cultural roots are to her. Although Kahlo has interesting work I probably find this the least interesting of the three because I am slightly biased to more modern art and art styles.