Artloop Tour

Before listening to the audio tour, I have seen all the 17 artworks; however, I didn’t pay much attention to any of these artworks, nor did I know any story behind these artworks. It took me over thirty minutes to finish listening to all the audios, but it was totally worth. Not only I learned some background information of these artworks, but I have the desire to see these artworks in no minute. Therefore, I went to see them again with Jongboe last Friday.
It was a wonderful day, not cold and not hot, for outing, and we started our journey at Art Institute of Chicago. There were many people taking pictures in front of the building, and some people were lining up for visiting inside. The lion sculptures were attracted, and so was the Public Gardens. After that, we went to the Millennium Park where we spent the most time. It has been a year since I last visited the park, and there were more artworks in the park. Even though we couldn’t have a great visit to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion due to the closeness, I was glad to see the big red dinosaur in person. BP Bridge, the Crown Fountain and the Cloud Gate were still the hot spots for visitors. At last, we took several pictures of the Loop tattoo.
However, my favorite artwork was none of the artworks above but the Picasso’s Chicago. It was interesting because nobody can tell what it is, and everybody can see different shapes in different directions or angles. It killed me that I couldn’t see that sculpture because of my tiredness and laziness.
It was a great tour, and the artworks are amazing. I highly recommend to the visitors to Chicago and the people who are interested in art.

The Boat Ride

The boat ride last week was amazing, and I never knew how fantasy the architecture could be without this experience. During the boat ride, I couldn’t help to take as many pictures as I could, and I had to show my high respect to the architects.
In fact, I didn’t pay much attention to the explanation the lady gave while I was busy in taking pictures; however, I still could catch something the lady said. I learned that there were two bridges, the North Chicago Bridge and the South Chicago Bridge, during the boat ride, and I also knew that many of the architectures during the tour were built after the Chicago Fire in 1871. Moreover, the majority of the buildings were of latest design back at their time. The most interesting thing was that two buildings were refreshed for better light.
During my taking photos tour, I noticed that all the buildings could be classified into three types, the International type, the post-modern type, and the art deco type. The dominant type was International, and those building were always full of glass but lack of decorations. Nevertheless, I didn’t like this type, and my favorite building was the building with no right angles. All the corners of the building were curved, and I could think of the waves if I turned my head 90 degrees. However, I was surprised that two buildings, as I mentioned before, had to be refreshed. Obviously, the designers couldn’t expect more buildings around.
The wonderful one hour flied, and I still thought of the amazing buildings on my way home. I truly respected the creative designers and the skillful workers, and it seemed that everything could show up in their hands, the building lying alone near the Navy Pier, the building with waterfall shape, and so on. I really loved the outing; not only had it enlarged my vision, but may it lead me to my future career — architect.

The Wenbin Tower

The most impressive architecture for me is the Wenbin Tower, which locates at the center of my primary school in China. The tower has a history of over 100 years, and it is 20 meters in height. The tower is an octahedron, and it has seven floors. Lots of painting, mostly about birds and flowers, are on the back surface of the tower. The thunders stroke the tower to damage in 1979; therefore, there is a lightning rod on top of the tower from 1985 when the tower got fixed.
Inside the tower, there is only one little tiny light bulb on the seventh floor, so it is very dark even in the daytime. Moreover, there is just one long helical stair attached to the center column of the tower, and there is little room for each floor. The tower is not open for the public for some unknown reasons.
I have been to the tower three times so far. It was, generally speaking, short tour for the first two times, and I didn’t have enough time to look through the tower. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to go up the tower with my grandpa when I was in high school. The tower inside was messy and dirty, for there was nobody to clean it. Even though it was dark inside, I was still able to find out the painting on the walls with my flashlight. However, the lines and the colors faded so that I couldn’t tell the subject matter of the painting. When I was on the seventh floor of the tower, I could have a full view of my hometown through the circle window. Looking out the window, I was shocked by the differences between the far sight and the near sight, and I couldn’t help to imagine how my hometown had changed for the past few years. From then on, I love the tower very much, and I am looking forward to the next tour for the tower.

Shadow Hunting

Maya Lin and Her Artworks

Love in Art

When I was a little boy, I was crazy about drawing, though I didn’t know what I was drawing about. Every night, I drew on the wall about what I saw and heard that day, and each time, I kept drawing until I was exhausted. The funny thing was that even though I knew my drawing was bad, I never allowed my parents to erase them. There was one time that my parents accidently erased a tiny little part of my drawing, and then I cried for two hours until there were no more tears coming out. I didn’t have many friends in my childhood; however, I had a great childhood with drawing.
When I was a little older, I realized that my drawing was terrible, but I didn’t lose interest in drawing. Compared to the celebrity posters or autographs in others’ bedrooms, my bedroom was full with all kinds of paintings. I spent most of my allowance and scholarship on different paintings, but I never stopped buying my favorite paintings even though there was no more room for them. However, one of my little cousins tore down most of my collection, and at that time, it was like the end of the world to me. The horrible part was that I couldn’t blame on my little cousin because he was too young to realize how terribly he did.
From then on, I rarely collected paintings or anything easy to be torn. Therefore, I began to take digital photos. I spent all my money buying a digital camera, and I took the camera along with me all the time, even when I was sleeping. I took thousands of photos, such as profiles, landscapes, nature phenomena, and so on. I also made my photos into digital albums so that I could share them with my friends. I love art, from painting to photos, and I am definitely sure that my life will be terrible without art.

Artwork about Love

Basic Information: Doris B. Lambling ,"Love, Peace, and Happiness", Computer Art, 2008

I choose this artwork because it is a computer art. Different from the painting, this artwork use the advanced technique to express the thoughts of the artist.

The first impression of this artwork may be a chaos, but it's clever for the artist to make in this way. The upper part of the artwork is a giant heart which is a symbol of love. Compared to the rest part, this heart is easy to be recognized and tells people what this artwork is about. On the other hand, the rest part of the artwork is kind of mess, which, in my opinion, represents the messy world, and the artist wants to tell people that love is the only pure and beautiful thing in the world.