A couple of weeks ago, our class walked over to the VMFA and had the opportunity to see the museum's exhibit on Ryan Mgiginis. Ryan Mgiginis was commissioned by the museum to create a number of pieces out of icons based on works of art within in the museum. The exhibit was called: Art History is not Linear. 

I absolutely loved the exhibit. It showed his creative process and the steps he took to make each piece, so it felt almost as if you were with him every step of the way. Each icon captures the essence of the orginal piece, but what makes them interesting are the different ways he takes creative license with the simplification. The big pieces of work themselves are absolutley amazing: how he takes such clean, flat icons and manages to create these dynamic, rhythmic pieces full of color and texture. 

I am extremley glad we had the oppurtunity to see his work before jumping into our projects. 

In the past couple of weeks, we have begun a project based off of the works of Ryan McGinness, in which we take a piece of art and architecture from an assigned country or region, and then make simplfied, logo like images of them, which we will later compile together. So far I have really enjoyed this project, mainly because I really love the work of Ryan McGinness, and I have liked using Illustator and the pen tool (and getting to explore CS6 on the new laptops) .  Most of all, I think it's going to be incredibly cool when we bring everyone's different icons together at the end. 

Today we also got to look at the work of artist Miao Xiaochun. I absolutely loved his work, from his manipulated photographs to his projected animated pieces (the cube was especially cool). I think what he's doing is really interesting and his work really engaging, and I'd definatley like to see more of it.