gestalt

Gestault is translated to mean "unified whole," and it refers to humans' innnate visual perception of things and their tendancy to group things or organize things that they see. This term was coined by German psychologists in the 1920s at the Berlin School. Gestault breaks visual perception down into subcatagories or principals. The principals of Gestalt are:

*SIMILARITY- when objects look similar, people tend to group them together. Similarity's impact is offset by anomally, which is a totally dissimilar object grouped with other obects similar to one another.

*Continuation-This principal refers to an instance where one object is tied to another object or continues through one obect into another object, thus groping them.

*Closure-Closure occurs when an objects defining edges are inferred by objects. The human eye will assume, based on it's visual experiences, that those defining edges are there.

*Proximity-THis is an example of the eye perceiving objects as a group or a whole because of their closeness to one another. If a goup of objects are side by side in a somewhat organized way, they eye will see them as one unit.

*Figure and Ground-this principal refers to a persons tendancy to want to find a background in order to define a figure or object. Once a background or ground is established, it becomes very easy to figure out shapes that group together to form a familliar object.

The Gestalt theory is widely used for therapy tothis day. Gestalt has proven to be a great tool for dealing with autism and other types of behavioral psychotherepy.

gradation

I always enjoy making a value scale. It is always a chllenge. I used a number 2 pencil and was pleased with the results. I would have liked for the darkest value to be more of a true black than the shiny #2 pencil grey that it is, but I will save that for my H pencils. As far as the gradation shape, well, i kind of rushed making the shape in the first place, which left me unsatisfied with it in general. I think it works for the excersize, but design wise, it lacks.

String WorlD

This string excercize was interesting to me for a few different reasons. I was delighted to see how all of the interacting lines created shapes and spaces with so much of their own personalities. Within the room there were landscapes with peaks and ridges and low valleys. There were streams of pink and white and rich pastures of carpet blue. There were giant monsters entangled in wire, thrashing around. For a few brief moments I bore witness to a miniature Rhye or a tiny Narnia, being built in fast forward. Then as all of it slowly came down, and things went back to resembling a classroom, it became clear to me that all things are just lines and shapes anyway.

LINE or shape

these are all shapes.

This wonderful painting

This image is easily described as a series of charectars assembeled in a room.

The horizontal image is separated into two large planes, one a taupe color, and one a rich chestnut. This gives the illusion of space both because of an implied horizon, and because the darker brown is on the bottom. This darker brown adds wieght. In the upper right hand corner of the image there is a smaller vertical rectangle. This smaller rectagle has definate depth. It appears to be a paneless window. Inside this window rectange are three shapes of different color; a red vertical squiggle, a black and white sun, and a feirce black triangle.

Inside of this room ractangle there is every shape one could ever imagine, from spheres to ladder shapes (ascending the entire left edge of the page as it tapers away) to fish fin shapes! Below the window rectangle on the right hand side of the image, there is a blue plane formation that seems to move back into the image.

The real star of this painting is a large white tube that slithers up the front and center of the image with a small stringed instrument shape being held directly above it by a bird headed creature. This white tube image is reflected elswhere in the piece.

This painting seems to focus on bold primary colors for its subjects with easy warm earth tones as a backdrop.


I really enjoy this image for its ability to convey so so so much emotion and also use a color scheme as simple as a summer wind. The subjects themselves can be a little disturbing at times. There are demonic illusions scattered mostly on the left hand side of the page. I automatically think that the artist could be a religous person. I also conclude that this artist must be a musician, and i appreciate that.
It is also interesting to me that most of the straight black lines in the image seem to begin in the upper left hand corner of the image and move toward the bottom right.
This image is a treat to look at.