Visual Arts and Social Advocacy Essay Example for Free

Visual Arts and Social Advocacy Essay Art is basically a social construction. It is a mere representation of the experiences of the artist himself, thus it can never be real. Groups of people agree to a certain thing. The capacity of man to receive another mans expression of feeling and the experience those feelings himself is where the activity of art is based (Tolstoy, 1896). In arts, imagination and creativity is used to make things aesthetically significant; something that is perceptible to the senses, pleasurable and satisfying to the percipients. Thus, appreciation of art is not just because of the aesthetic satisfaction. An artist wants to communicate various things; an artist wants to communicate the experience that he or she had, the act of expressing the experience that he or she had and the gratifying experience of the artist for having accomplished something meaningful and or significant. There are three kinds of art forms according to the medium used; the visual or space art, the auditory or time arts and the combined arts. Visual or space art can be seen and occupies space. There are two major forms of art in visual arts; the two-dimensional art which portrays width and length, these can be found in art forms such as paintings, photography, prints and drawings, there is what we also call the three-dimensional art in which it portrays width, length and depth, this can be found in sculptures and landscape. The auditory or time arts is the kind of art that can be heard and expressed in time, various mediums such as musical instruments and poems can be used in this kind of art. Combined arts is the combination of visual arts and auditory arts, this can be seen in theatre arts, drama, plays, movies and the likes. Art in any period simultaneously reflects two things; the genius of the maker, artist or inventor and the sensibility, characteristic values and attitudes towards the important aspect of life that are held by the society in which the work was formed. What is a mural? Murals are art forms which are visible to the naked eye, these are usually paintings; it is categorized as a kind of visual arts. These are art forms which are usually painted on walls, ceilings and tiles. Public murals are usually in large scale and are shown to the public; these are usually painted on public walls and streets. Murals can give an extra elegance, beauty and character to a park, school walls, buildings and bridges. Murals usually tell us stories and ideas of its maker and of the society. Thus, murals can be a great cause of vandalism and future deterioration that is why there are organizations that have been managing and restoring murals to be able to make it a part of the cultural legacy of a certain nation. Due to the fact that murals are outdoor it is very much susceptible to damage and deterioration; urban grimes and pollution can fade the vibrant color of murals, the heat of the sun can crack the paint and moist will allow the paint to peel off ( City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2007). Murals in Los Angeles The city of angels. Los Angeles seems to be a center-less place, malls are scattered all over the area that divides between the people of the locality, a city which is smog-full due to the fact that Los Angeles is a commercial and progressive place; well known for being one of the world’s center of technology, international trade, science, culture and higher education. However, Los Angeles makes sense as a whole because of the murals scattered everywhere; in the streets, bridges and in the walls of the buildings, if not because of the murals Los Angeles would seem to be a place full of walls, buildings and nothing more. Murals in Los Angeles actually represent the city and its historical background and accomplishments due to the fact that most of the themes of the murals around the vicinity of Los Angeles is about the city’s history. During the nineteen-sixties and seventies there were only few isolated and scattered murals found in Los Angeles but through time murals have been increasing. There were few muralists who have helped in inspiring the new generation of muralists, such muralists were Jose Orozco, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. The young muralists listed were Judith Baca, Frank Romero, Terry Schoonhoven, Kent Twitchell, Alonzo Davis, the East Los Streetscrapers and many other muralists; these are only few of the muralists that helped create the thousand of murals we now can see in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is often called as the Mural Capital of the World, but this is not official. This is due to the fact that there are various numbers of murals which are in large variety and of good quality. The southern California weather is also conducive for muralists to create number of murals the whole year round (Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, 2000 ). How many murals are there in Los Angeles? According to a study made by Rich Puchalsky from 1998-2002 there are more than 1069 painted murals around Los Angeles. Puchalsky devoted four years in taking pictures of the murals in the locality. Pictures of murals were taken from East L. A. or in Monterey Park and he found a total of 204 murals. He had taken pictures of 84 murals in Downtown, 75 in San Fernando Valley, 73 murals in Long Beach Area, 67 in South L. A. , 108 in Mid-city, 42 in West L. A. , 95 murals in Hollywood or South Hollywood, 79 in Silver lake or in Echo park, 39 in Santa Monica or in Malibu, 37 from Vernon to Compton, 11 in Pasadena area, 57 in Venice area, 29 in Highland park in Northeast L. A. , 20 in Pomona area, 15 murals from Hermosa beach to San Pedro, 6 in Glendale area, 15 in L. A. Airport area, 5 in La Mirada area, 5 in Walnut area, 1 in Eastern San Gabriel valley, and 4 murals from Commerce to Paramount (Puchalsky, 2004) . The site for the mural If I were to make a mural in Los Angeles it would be in the Silver Lake area. We all know that Silver Lake is large; though it is exquisitely large it is better known for the peacefulness of the area. The area has many patches of communities; nevertheless it has been economically productive. It has a wide variation of subcultures and ethnicities because of its historical background. Silver Lake also has the uniqueness of having such a number of gays within the area. Theme and objective Homosexuals have been discriminated around the world and as an individual who has a respect for humankind it is my obligation to give our fellowmen a chance to be accepted by the society. The mural that I would like to make is for the commemoration of the homosexuals; the theme would be of the homosexuals and their kind. This theme would be appropriate for Silver Lake because of the fact that prominent number of homosexuals are living within the vicinity. The objective of the mural is to show to everyone that homosexuals should be given the same appreciation as anyone of us because they too are human and they have the right to be appreciated, nourished with love, and they too have the right to live in the way they are comfortable of, being homosexuals. We as humans are not suppose to deprive them of what all of us needs and we are not to let their lives be doomed because of our justification that homosexuals are immoral and that they do not have the right to live and be accepted. The mural should be able to express the thought that homosexuals should be accepted by the society. The percipients should be able to understand well the meaning of the mural so that they would digest well whatever it is that is within the context of the art. Medium and technique Technique is the knowledge of the artist of the medium he is using and his skill in making him or her achieve what he or she wants, it is a strategy. Medium is the materials used by the artist to objectify his experiences. In the mural I want I am going to use acrylic water emulsion paint which is actually synthetic. Acrylic do have a lot of advantage because acrylic does not crack, it does not turn into yellow and it does not turn into black even for ages. Acrylic also offers the advantage of having wide range of perfectly unique and permanent colors that persists through the years which is ideal in painting murals, it also has clear resin mixed with it and superb adhesion properties that makes the paint in-tacked with the wall to prevent bubbles that may cause the paint to peel off. It has proven that it is durable and can withstand the weather conditions and some environmental factors such as rain, sun, heat, cold, acid rain and air pollution. The mural is to be painted in an existing wall, although fake walls would be of great advantage over existing ones, I want the mural to persist through the years. And for the longetivity of the mural the surface should be prepared well. The surface should be free of moisture content, and water should not penetrate the wall on the other side. The surface should also be free from unwanted oil, wax or grease and the surface should be free from loose particles, and this should be dusted out using brush for smooth texture. Application of Gesso in the surface is also needed for the surface to be smooth. White surface would be preferred for the mural; this is to establish the relationship of the colors I am going to use (Rex Art Supplies, 1997-2007). The colors I would use would be bright colors, mostly of the primary or fundamental colors which are red, blue and yellow. These colors would represent the colorful and bright lives of our homosexual fellowmen despite of the fact that they are being discriminated and disgraced. The vibrant colors would also represent the feelings of the homosexuals. The Design The mural’s design would be harmonious; the elements of visual arts such as line, shape, texture, color and the space and movement should be united even though there is diversity. Line shows emotional qualities and it helps us express ourselves, shape represents the elements that we see, color is used to attract the percipient and it is used by the artist to express his or her feelings whether he or she feels hot or cold, texture is the feeling of the surface of an object whether it is smooth or rough, space and movement gives sense of volume and shows depth. It would also portray proportion; there should be a comparison of the portions of the surface or the mural. It would also show cadence, flow and or continuance and this can be achieved through repetition (Ippolito, 1998 ). The mural’s center piece would portray two men holding hands. This would mean homosexual relationships. Intricate details of the man’s physical appearance and wardrobe would also be given an emphasis in the mural. One of the men would be having a long hair but still having the physique of a common man, and the other man would be holding him. The two men in the mural would be in the act of swaying or dancing to show that they are happy being together and that they are carefree; this would show that they do not care if the society would accept their kind or not. Conclusion Art is a product of man and man is the basic unit of the society, it is a part of a whole. Culture is formed by the society and therefore arts, man and society are inter-connected and inter-related. An art would not exist if there is no artist and the society would not also exist because of man. References City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs [Electronic (2007). Version] from http://www. culturela. org/publicart/murals/murals. html. Ippolito, E. (1998 ). Graphic animation [Electronic Version]. Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. ( 2000 ). from http://www. lamurals. org/MCLAIntro. html. Puchalsky, R. (2004). Version] from http://rpmurals. home. att. net/murals. html. Rex Art Supplies [Electronic (1997-2007). Version] from http://www. rexart. com/appmuralprep. html. Tolstoy, L. (1896).