Album Art

Word of the Day

Lucubration (n.): 1. The act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation.

2.That which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence (loosely)any literary composition.

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Artwork: How To Save A Life Album Cover

Artist: Unknown

Medium: Album Cover

Dimensions: 4.75 in X 4.715 in

The album cover portrays a shattered bulb that is still illuminated. At a glance the object looked like a pot of flowers or a house plant that’s been adorned with lights. But once you notice it for what it is, it becomes really hard to view it as a plant again. My eyes are always on the spots of yellow color. The bulb seems to be placed on a very simple brown surface. Also the smooth curve of the laid out glass shards pulls and keeps the gaze at the center of the image. It is interesting how every shard of glass is shown to reflect the light. This idea is also intriguing considering the bulb is already broken which means it shouldn’t be able to light up anymore and yet it has a very strong luminosity. Did the artist somehow try to visualize life in more tangible terms with the usage of light? For example, although light is present in a room it is invisible to the eyes unless it is reflected against something. Similarly, one’s life is present but it can only be seen when it reflects off of someone else’s life. So in the context of the album’s name “How To Save A Life” … even thought someone is not there anymore, their presence can still be felt through the reflection of it in other people’s life. And that is how you save a life for a lifetime.

Off course the above mentioned explanation is only my speculation of what the artist meant. I would love to find out the name of the original artist and find out his interpretation. There is another album cover for the same band that has a similar visualization but this time the bulb is in the shape of a heart. It fits with the album name “Heartless” but it loses its deeper appeal because of its hackneyed heart shape and the red color.

Impressionism

Word of the Day

Loquacious (adj.): 1. Very talkative.
2. Full of excessive talks; wordy.

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Artwork: Water Lily Pond

Artist: Claude Monet

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Dimensions: 35.38 in x 36.25 in

The painting features Monet’s famous water lilies. Monet uses a lot of green color in his painting and a few touches of blue and white and yet is very successful in giving his work a perspective. The usage of black in top center gives it additional depth. The most prominent object in the painting is the Japanese bridge. The bend in the bridge smoothly draws a person’s eyes from one side of the painting to the other. The sun seems to be filtering through the right side of the painting. He is also very good at manipulating his paints to achieve either textured or glossy surfaces. For example, in few places you can see the glassiness of still water and in some places you can see the little ripples in water and the reflections of the lilies are drawn accordingly. There are many more similar painting by Monet himself. He did a whole set of water lilies in his Water Garden collection.

Impressionism

Word of the Day

Cognizance (n.): Notice or awareness.

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Artwork: La Promenade

Artist: Claude Monet

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Dimensions: 100 cm x 81 cm

The artwork depicts Monet’s wife Camille Monet and their son on a sunny afternoon. Immediately my eyes are drawn to the light. The image is very successful in capturing the essence of a windy day. The most prominent colors are blue and green. The sunlight seems to be coming from the right side. Monet seems to be standing down below and looking up to his subject. The brush strokes are the most obvious things to be noticed in the work. It has similar qualities with other impressionism work. Also I think there are more portraits using the same subject but I am not too sure. The visual effect created is of mid-day sunlight filtering through the clouds and hitting the grass. The play of shadows is also depicted very well. Not only the big things like people and umbrella have excruciating detail but even the shadows of a twig onto another are also given their due detail.

Animating the Fairy Tales

Word of the Day

Emolument: Compensation received by virtue of holding an office or having employment.

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Artwork: Tangled

Medium: Animation Movie

Runtime: 100 minutes

So last Friday I went to see the newly released Disney movie Tangled... for the second time. I have to say, hats off to Disney for making such a good movie. Although I have seen the movie twice I still want to watch it again. The movie is basically Disney's take on the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel. God... the colors in the animation were amazing... most importantly their facial expressions! The expressions were so right on. Makes me wonder if the animators had a minor in psychology. It was better than human acting. You can see all these multitude of emotions on their faces... the happiness, the sorrow, the guilt, the mischief and a whole lot more. I mean you could actually see the exact point of time when Flynn falls in love with Rapunzel. Giving facial expressions to humans might be considered easy but the animators at Disney were very very successful at giving facial expressions to even a horse. Even though there are many animated movies I don't know if Tangled can be compared to any other animated Film. If I had to pick one I would say Pocahontas comes very close to it but its geared more towards the older generation. Despite both movies being from the romance genre, Pocahontas can be claimed to be a beautiful movie, but Tangled definitely comes under the cute category.