Blog Entry 2

Big Ideas and Artmaking

This is a very interesting article about big ideas of professional artists. I like how the author says that big ideas are what make art more than just pretty paintings or sculptures. Big ideas are important because it gives art meaning and importance that go beyond aesthetic artistic skills.

However the article seems to imply that each artist has exactly one big idea that are present throughout all of their works. I don’t think this is true, or if it is, it feels to me like a terrible constraint. I would think that graphic design artists that do marketing and branding would be conveying big ideas of their clients, which are different from client to client.

Cut and Paste

This article helps me to understand the difference between denotation and connotation in artworks. It also shows how people of all ages can identify denotation and connotation. Even little children who do not understand those two words can readily apply them.

I think the biggest difficulty in identifying connotation is that it depends on the culture. For example, the article mentions how the preschool children compare their teddy bears to what they know about bears in real life to show connotation. If they did not anything about real life bear, they might not be able to see those connotations. So without understanding the culture, the meaning of the artwork may not be clear.