Landscape

My landscape image has color mixes between the blues and yellow-greens that give the image a feel of calm and relaxing. Implied lines are seen through the small branches in the trees which gives the trees its shape and stance. The defined formation of the dark trees and the light tint off of the surface of the sidewalk brings more of a balanced figure ground that evenly distributed the weight in the photo. The point of view in where I was standing was my ideal purpose to capture space and movement of the sidewalk along with the cemented bricks beside it. With the flow of moving back in the photo, it brought rhythm through where the trees are positioned and how the dimensions of the wide sidewalk made the background seem so far away.

Claude Monet- Branch of the Seine near Giverny

Claude Monet was famous for his landscapes and creates beautiful imagery through small brush strokes and hazy coloration within his paintings. He was an impressionist painter who painted plein-air landscape painting which means that he painted outdoors that worked with natural lighting. Compared with my photo, they both have tints of white along the surfaces. Spatial dimensions, shady trees, and a central point that end on the left hand side. However, his painting had more of a hazy and luminescent feel with light strokes of purple and green. His picture gives the allusion of the landscape being real but close up it contains cloudy strokes. In my photo, it had distinct and harsher lines. There are hints of reds and oranges in the leaves on the ground and lighter greens in the grass. My picture also contains darker shadows and more revealing details in the trees, the cement, and in the leaves. 

Earthwork Image: The earthwork image we used capture how man was in nature and how human can be one with nature.  Nature in itself is a beauty that God created for us to take time and appreciate, however, He also wanted us to look at nature in a way that has not been seen before. That is, to understand its purpose and why it was meant to be there. Like our earthwork photograph, my image of the landscape is the same by the source of lighting that was used and the capturing moment of balance and a sense of control. 

Earthworks are more about participation with the landscape, working with nature, and working within a community of collaborators.

Landscape, just by the mechanics of a camera and the convention of one-point perspective, puts the viewer at the center of the universe, in a position of mastery and control. A place of the single individual, not a community; a place that once thought to be occupied by God. (The theme of the Renaissance: "Man is the Measure of All Things." The idea that we occupy the center of the universe, (at least in our imaginations) that we own land and resources ourselves without necessarily acknowledging the earth as a gift from God, that we have autonomy over the earth to do with it as we please, is a problem and is at the root of many of our issues in the world. Is that an inherent problem reflected in the way we view the landscape? 

1.) I agree on the differences between earthworks and landscapes. Earthworks is woven in with the landscape and portraying nature in its true form. To show the beauty that it contains and working with it as a whole to create something that should be appreciated more. With a landscape, it is about the angles and working with the angles to see nature in different perspectives. To have control and finding a balance within a certain location. 

We use and harvest the land to build and create what we are given for good use. In our minds, it is true that we believe that we own everything but in reality, we do not own anything at all. With the indians, they acknowledge the creation and worshipped the created instead of the creator Himself. We take advantage of the earth without realizing it which causes conflict and division with our brothers and sisters. 

2.) My landscape was supposed to be celebrating the earth because I wanted to capture what God created and show that something simple can be elegant and beautiful. I wanted to portray a new coming of the earth and the start of a new beginning.