Dynamic Art

Title: "Creep"
Artist: VexingArt on deviantArt
Link: http://vexingart.deviantart.com/art/Creep-140011383?q=boost%3Apopular%20creep&qo=91

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This is an example of dynamic art because of the camera angle; the view that we have given is that of something either very small or laying down.

I personally am given the impression that this picture is indicating the results of a fight of some sort.

As the viewer, we are the losing party of said battle, as we are on the ground [the blurriness could be insinuating a loss of conscienceness].

Peppercorn's Tale

The Night was no ordinary night in the Field, that’s for sure. In fact, anyone can ask Old Peppercorn about it. Yessir, it’s a time that the little people like myself still talk about, for it is a tale that Peppercorn tells well, although not so often; the new generations of the Community no longer believe in magic.
Let’s see if Old Peppercorn’s tale is as entertaining as it once was…
It was long ago, during a summer where the grass was long and the wind was light. Peppercorn was barely a young mouse, yessir he could jump and flip ‘round any bend. He was as agile as any field mouse of old, not like the rapscallion lazies of today.
Peppercorn was out fixing himself some seeds of wheat at sunset when he looked up. Now I find it myself that it was fate for him to have looked into the distance, for no sound or smell should have lured him to do so. But alas, there she was; Fiddle the Field Cat was there, and in a crouching position. Fortunately enough, he had seen her before it was too late. Without delay, Peppercorn spat his full cheek of seeds and abandoned the bounty and Fiddle began the chase. Peppercorn darted every which way, as did Fiddle follow him with her powerful legs. The sun began to dip and Peppercorn was soon lost in the tangled weeds of the Field. Once the darkness hit, he was still, so very still, as it was now dark, and this black cat could easily find him with her dangerous blue eyes. Damn that Fiddle, she was too much of a predator for Peppercorn to brave! But then, far from his vigil, he saw Fiddle, perched in the tall summer grass, sitting and staring towards the black sky.
Peppercorn thought to himself ‘The bloody feline has gone mad! Or is there a bird in that starworthy blanket?’ And so, he had to see it for himself. Peppercorn maneuvered his healthy little form like a dancing shrew across the Field until he was close enough to see Fiddle’s chest rise and fall with each moment of breathing.
Fiddle was still intent on the sky, and something gold reflected in her eyes. The moon? Peppercorn can recall, and argue, that the next moments were the most important in history.
A great fish made of clocks that subtlety rotated was drifting, but through the sky… ‘twas as if it was Chronos was swimming through the time stream. For all that it was worth, time did seem to stop that night.
Peppercorn was in awe of this enchanting figment, as well as Fiddle. The two of them were still enough for the fireflies to shimmer across the grass like the city nightlife. With the Clock Fish growing nearer after every moment, mind you it felt like an eternity between blinks, the clouds on the nighttime sky became a violet-red, like ripe strawberries in the shade, drifting slowly across the sky. Peppercorn saw the great Clock Fish come close to Fiddle, hovering with the slow movements of his glowing fins. Fiddle blinked slowly, her blue eyes gold with the apparition’s illumination. Small, gear-shaped flakes of some alleged form of magic began to fall and… from what Peppercorn could ever gather next would be that Fiddle herself began to glow.
At first, her tail was shimmering at the end with its own clock beginning to form like a ring. Her body became embellished with golden clocks that spun slowly and ticked lightly, congruent to the body of the great Clock Fish. Fiddle’s blue eyes became black with slow and cheery blinks. Tick, tock, tick, tock… the gift that she was blessed with began to diminish and fade back into greasy fur as the flakes ceased to fall, and the Clock Fish glided back into the black depths of the sky. As the fish became one with the stars, Peppercorn realized that Fiddle was blinking back to reality, as was he. Without delay, he scampered into the brush to find the Burrow where he could tell his infamous tale for the first time.
Oh, it was many seasons ago that the Community first heard old Peppercorn’s tale of Fiddle, who has long been dead or at least vanished, the Field, which was now just dust, and the Clock Fish, which has yet to have been spotted again. It was long since the youth of the Community believed the story of the Clock Fish; “Peppercorn is an old coot!” they now say. And maybe they’re right…
… maybe I am just an old coot.

Short Story Briefing

For our upcoming Short Story assignment, I have decided to stray from the morbid pieces and pay a tribute to the Surrealism aspect of Scelestus.

This picture can be found at the following link: http://kitkitattack.deviantart.com/#/d3d8367

Artist Responsible: Qinni

Scary

There is a fine line between realism and surrealism. Sometimes, people have the tendency to argue whether or not a piece is either real or surreal. In rare instances, the piece can also be determined as both. In the deviantart artist pinkertonFX's "Scary," the composition is determined as almost surreal through form, colour, and unity.

The art has a great sense of unity to it. The piece lacks texture, but in return supplies the viewer with an overall similar, yet not boring, tone. The entire piece piece has a look of old to it, as if an archaic scroll was where this piece was conjured, and so perhaps this ancient haze is another contribution to the piece's unity.

A secondary element this piece holds is colour. The artist used a very evident use of warm colours, which dominate the piece; orange and brown are the primary colours seen, even if they are manipulated into separate shades and tints. Although this also unifies the piece, it can also be so that these colours were used to assist the aged look that the artist was going for. In addition, this colour choice might have been applied to adhere to a morbid theme [it is a skull, after all].

Lastly, the form of this piece is crucial. The artist did not create a foreground nor a background to complement their composition, but rather they relied heavily on form and space to substitute. The skull and shirt are very well indicated that they are of three dimensions, whereas the background, although containing value, is not.

This piece is difficult to place in the surreal category, yet it does not quite apply to realism either. Some might argue that it is surrealism for it is a skull with a body and ears. Or, they might ponder that is is realism, for nothing indicates that this open-skulled figure is alive. Nonetheless, this piece displays a cunning mastery of colour manipulation, as well as refined skill with unification and the use of form with space.

Response to Leo Tolstoy's "What is Art?"

For some, art is not a concept of realistic action; it is a waste of time and energy. This harsh definition of art applied quite heavily to a man known as Leo Tolstoy. He believed that the theatre was a shallow waste of purpose and that there was other word that could have been done. In Leo Tolstoy’s prompt about art, he identifies numerous categories of art expression and theatre, but then them as congruently extinct.
Tolstoy states, in the sake of art, that “not only is enormous labor spent on this activity, but in it, as in war, the lives of very men are sacrificed” [Tolstoy]. In this he means to state that there are people who are utterly and unfathomably dedicated and devoted to the idea of art and theatre. Alternatively, he goes on to say that there are only five forms of art; the art of the five senses. Tolstoy does not believe that art holds any aesthetic value, rather it is a great hindrance to mankind’s success.
Time and time again, Tolstoy expresses his belief that art is a waste of mankind’s usefulness; it is thoroughly expressed that he is not a believer of art. He is open about expressing that he finds art to be wasteful and opaque. But one must look at the direction of opinion before striking down his character; Tolstoy grew up in a harsh time for Russia, and in that sense there was a great demand for work force. In this sense, Tolstoy’s criticism could be condoned by even the greatest art fanatic.

Saturn Devouring One of His Children

This is an original painting by Francisco Goya. This piece was created during his dark age, where he was very depressed and quite possibly insane because of numerous factors; his wife had recently died and he had also gone deaf.

The original work of art was painted don the walls of his dining room, and so they had to cut out the plaster of his walls to display this piece in a museum.

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Francisco Goya was a famous painter from Spain, and there is no doubt about that. However, there are doubts that run through his treacherous line of art; the solemn, disturbing figures and actions he decided to display frighten many, but some cannot decide why other than the fact that "it's creepy." Through allusions, colour planning, and lighting, Goya creates a harmonized feeling of despair and other-worldly havoc.

The initial element that is applicable to Goya's piece is an allusion to Greek Mythology. Although this piece was not completed in the era of the Ancient Greeks, nor was it painted in Greece or Rome, it is very direct in addressing the mythology of the previous locations; Saturn was the Roman name for Chronos [Greek God of Time]. Chronos, in mythology, ate his children to avoid the idea of them growing up and slaying him. In another example of this piece's allusions, he alludes to some sort of demon or creature with the wild expression. He gives Saturn wide eyes like a wild animal spotting man in the distance, and his stance appears as though he is about to lumber off.

The colour choice is another element that ought to be discussed. The entire piece is made up of warm colours and different shades of red, yellow, orange, and brown. The importance of these colours is astronomical; they are warm colours specifically because most partner reds, yellows, and oranges with things such as blood, fire, or the eyes of large predators [big cats or wolves]. All of these reminders lead to the same point: they represent destruction, as does his piece "Saturn Devouring One of His Children." Alternatively, the browns represent mud, especially when one looks into the shadows [do they not appear ruddy?]. This was done on purpose, because what Saturn is doing is not only destructive and wrong, but volatile and dirty; the concepts of this piece are not meant to be clean, and so the colours have come to match those terms.

Finally, the light source and the definite chiaroscuro that takes place both bring us to a final destination of observation; Saturn almost appears to be emerging from a cave, or some sort of dark and hellish location [the darkness, ruddiness, and warmness of the colours and shades all allude to this[. Again, Goya has done this on purpose, to imitate a beast-like man who, as the title tells, devours children.

In no doubt, Goya's piece has been planned to be a disaster on plaster; he has unified his colour to his concept, and his mythological logic has been applied to an illogical situation. He applied much effort to attain this sort of unity and I give my kudos to the amount of connections this piece has to history, with much accuracy.

The Choosing of My Concept

There are many reasons as to why I have chosen the idea of "Scelestus" for my blog.

To start; In my deviantArt favourites, I have a favourite folder labeled "Dark" specifically created for this sort of theme [Scelestus]. This is where the idea of Gothica came into play.

I am utterly fascinated with the idea of a world the is not percieved correctly, but I have always admired the distrurbing twists; the idea of morbid and creepy-for lack of better words- things intertwined in a non-applicable world [insanity, altered realms, and/or surrealism] has some odd place in my book.