Class Field Trip: Balance in the A-Wing

Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable. In symmetrical balance, the elements used on one side of the design are similar to those on the other side; in asymmetrical balance, the sides are different but still look balanced. In radial balance, the elements are arranged around a central point and may be similar.

Gordon Parks: Movie Notes Pt. 2 (contd)

16. When did the FSA shut down?
1942
17. After Gordon moved to New York, what magazine did he shoot for?
Vogue
18. Who was the picture editor of Life Magazine when Gordon walked into the Life Magazine office?
Wilson Hicks was the picture editor of Life Magazine
19. What was the first major story Parks covered for Life Magazine?
A series of photos on a Harlem gang leader.
20. Who were some of the artists that Gordon Parks mentioned influenced his work after he moved to the Paris Life Magazine bureau? 
Bernard, Picasso, Van Gogh were some of the artists that influenced his work.
21. How did Parks shoot fashion when he lived in France?
He shot fashion by following the models and adjusting to their movements.
22.Where was Parks' concerto performed?
Venice, Italy.
23. Who was Parks' second wife? (Who was her father? What did she do?)
Elizabeth Campbell. Her father was Parks' boss and she modeled for a living.
24. How old was Flavio de Silva when Parks met him?
12 years old
25. When did Parks meet Flavio?
When he went to Brazil for Life magazine to document poverty.
26. Where did Flavio live when Parks first met Flavio and his family?
In the slums of Brazil.
27. How is Gloria Vanderbilt? Who is her famous son? Who are her ancestors?
Gloria Venderbilt was a romantic acquaintance who was a painter and author. Her famous son was Anderson Cooper. Her ancestors owned the railroad companies, gaining much wealth from it.
28. How did Vanderbilt describe their relationship?
She described their relationship as filled with love and mutual respect.

Texture in Plant (or Rock) Life

Texture is the surface quality that can be seen and felt. Textures can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. Textures do not always feel the way they look.

Class Field Trip: Color in Plant Life

This assignment was to place the color red in the bottom left of each of the photos.

Color is light reflected off of objects. Color has three main characteristics: hue (the name of the color, such as red, green, blue, etc.), value (how light or dark it is), and intensity (how bright or dull it is).

Class Field Trip: Space in Plant Life

Bushes of the B-Wing (and Trees)

Space is the area between and around objects. The space around objects is often called negative space; negative space has shape. Space can also refer to the feeling of depth. Real space is three-dimensional; in visual art, when we create the feeling or illusion of depth, we call it space. 

Class Field Trip: Form in Plant Life

Forms are three-dimensional shapes expressing length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes, and pyramids are forms. 

Gordon Parks Movie Notes

On the day Gordon Parks was born, how did the doctor save Gordon's life?

The doctor plunged his body into a tub of icy water.

Where was Gordon born? (what state?)

Kansas

What did Gordon's college adviser, Ms. McClintock tell him about college?

She told him not to waste his time in college because they he was just going to end up as 

How old was Gordon when his mother died?

15 years old

Where did Gordon move after his mother died?

St. Paul, Minnesota

Did Gordon graduate from college?

Yes

How did Gordon begin his fashion photography career?

He went to Frank murphy and told him he wanted to photograph fashion.

What is a "double exposure?"

It is the repeated exposure of film to light, which leads to white, ghostly pictures

Who was boxer Joe Louis?

He was the husband of Martha Louis, who helped Parks by encouraging him to move to Chicago.

What instrument did Gordon play?

The piano

What was the purpose of the Farm Security Administration?

To combat American poverty and document it.

When Roy Stryker hired Gordon for the FSA, what was Stryker's first assignment for Gordon in Washington, D.C.?

Buy a topcoat, get something to eat, and go watch a movie and tell Stryker what he thought about it.

Who was Ella Watson?

An African American woman who worked as a maid in the FSA building he talked to Stryker in.

What was the inspiration for Grant Wood's American Gothic?

A little wood farmhouse, where he imagined people with long stretched faces in front of it.

What did Gordon learn from Stryker about photography?

He learned how to approach people when he wanted to take photographs of them