The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa

Located in downtown Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It has over 160 floors and is 2717 feet high. This building is truly a work of art, the unique design incorporates both cultural and historical elements particular to the region. The design of this building was actually influenced by a flower called Hymenocallis., like the flower, the building has a triple lobe footprint. The three lobe footprint makes up the elements arranged around a central core of the building. The cross section of the tower gets smaller and smaller as the height increases. This tallest building in the world will also housed more than 1000 pieces of art, including the work of Jaume Plensa. So not only is this building itself a wonderful piece of art, it will also have an artistic interior for tourists to admire.

Reflection on the visual essay on public art

At first when I read about the instructions about this project, I was completely clueless on what my theme should be. I asked myself whether I can try to be creative and think of something completely different, but it is easier said than done. So finally after brainstorming through many possible themes, I finally decided on a simple yet interesting theme, public art reaches for the sky. Since we are in downtown Atlanta and the population is very dense, there are many buildings that are extremely tall. Along with some monuments on campus, I put together 10 pictures that visualizes how public arts are reaching for the sky. My presentation was rather boring however, as I just described the history and designs of each of the buildings and monuments. I was also extremely nervous during my presentation, and that's why I forgot a lot of the things that i memorized for this presentation and had to constantly look back at my "cheat sheet".

Watching all the other presentation was also a great experience. I thought it was interesting how there could be so many different possible themes. There were themes about old versus new, graffiti, definitions of public art, comparison of two art objects, art at different angle, nature, and even steps! I learned a lot from watching how other people present, such as their hand gesture, their facial expressions and their overall body movement. Especially since I am not a good public speaker, watching all of these presentation will definitely help me in the future when I have to do the same thing in front of my employers. 

Working on this project had been a terrific experience. Although I got pretty frustrated due to the fact that my camera and shaky hands made some of my pictures really blurry (I took over 200 pictures, with 80% of them completely unidentifiable), the overall experience was awesome and I had a lot of fun trying to be creative. 

Origami art

Origami has been around for a long time, and it has been one of our favorite hobbies in our childhood. You might remember the paper airplanes you made when you were bored in class or the paper fortune teller that was suppose to tell your fortune by a combination of numbers and colors. But what you don't know is that they are a form of modern art. Origami first originated from Japan, and it spread throughout the world as it gain popularity as a special form of art. This form of art bends and folds papers in a certain way such that it creates a three dimensional figure. Some origami figures require months and months of careful folding and bending to create. This form of art is so special because it is made of merely paper, thus anyone can do it. So next time you come across a piece of paper, try doing some art with it!

 

Theme for Visual essay

While walking on campus looking for pictures, I saw many tall interesting buildings as I look down the horizon. These buildings each have a unique design and I thought that this can be public art. So I took many photos of these buildings, along with a picture of the campanile and a couple of other objects that I thought were interesting. As I look back at my picture, I can only see one theme. All of my public art is getting taller and taller! Almost as if it is trying to reach the sky. This make me realize that nature intends for humans to make progress, reach for new heights, and that's why the things that we make are getting taller and taller. This theme of progress can be seen all my pictures, because it shows the progression from shorter objects to the tall magnificent buildings of downtown Atlanta.

The earliest form of art, cave paintings

Art has existed since the beginning of the stone age when cavemen learn how to carve images using stone tools. From the rise of the human race to the 21st century, art has continue to exist and has evolve along side humans. The cave paintings are as important as any of the arts we have today because they can provide us with a lot of information about the culture and history of our beginnings. These cave paintings can have an indirect effect on us today because it shows how art has evolved to the many different forms that we have today. It is also amazing how the cavemen back then can draw to such fine details given the tools they had. This shows that anyone can be a artist because art can be so easy that even a caveman with rocks and sticks can do it!

The world's youngest professional artist, Arushi Bhatnagar

Arushi Bhatnagar is a child prodigy when it comes to art. Believe it or not, she started painting when she was only two months old by using her hands and feet. When she was eleven months old, she sold one of her paintings for 5000 rupees (about 113 in American dollars), which makes her the world's youngest professional artist in the Guinness book of world records. It is quite hard to imagine that someone can be a professional painter before the age of one, but Arushi made this possible with her natural born artistic skills. As of now at age 6, Arushi has painted over 3000 paintings and has put up 21 exhibitions in 10 cities. This is truly remarkable, especially for someone so young. If Arushi has already accomplished this much at the age of 6, imagine what she would accomplish when she grows up. With her gifted art abilities, Arushi's future is filled with opportunities, and she will probably become one of the most famous artists of the 21st century.

Optical illusion

I always thought that optical illusion is one of the most impressive form of art, because the artist has to spend so much time to planned out where everything is so that it would create the optical illusion. Optical illusion is like a puzzle, you have to look for certain features to tell what is hidden in the image. There are some that are easy to the naked eye, but there are some that will require the utmost concentration and even hours of time to figure out where the hidden image is. This is why optical illusions are so much fun, they challenge your brain to distinguish different image in the painting.

Funny sculpture

I want to share this picture with everyone because I thought it was funny how the hands are positioned in such a way that it looks like there is a giant living in the water. I am sure that's also the artist's intent when he sculpted this, and it made me realize that art also have a humorous and goofy side to it. The artist probably wanted the tourists to stop by and look at the giant hands, or maybe he wanted to scare little kids by making them think there is a monster in the water. But whatever the artist's intent might be, this sculpture will definitely get the attention of wandering onlookers.