Student Mark Mason's journal entry

Source:http://www.booooooom.com/
Date: 1/23/09
Artist: Chloe Early
Title: Halcyon
Artist Site:http://www.chloeearly.com/

This particular painting by the English artist, Chloe Early, is part of a series she produced over the course of 2008. She primarily paints with oil on an aluminum canvas and usually depicts a mixture of urban and natural landscapes in her artwork.

This landscape seems to combine several seemingly unrelated items into one captivating composition. Nothing in the painting stands alone as a complete idea, but when melded together with the other items into a full composition the effects are serene and at the same time perplexing like a cherished memory that is almost lost.

Like most of her paintings, there seems to be a true stream of consciousness type flow when it comes to composition. In the bottom left side of the piece the images are in a cluster only to fade out towards emptiness as the eye moves to the right, perhaps alluding to the uncertainty of the future and the memories that have yet to be conceived. The playful composition on the left half of the image is like a circus that caters to childhood memories.

Student Mark Mason's journal entry

Source: http://www.juxtapoz.com/
Date: 12/12/07
Artist: Ben Grasso
Title: 200613
Artist Site:http://bengrasso.com/

This particular piece is from a series of paintings produced in 2007 by Midwestern artist Ben Grasso. The middle American states experienced a sudden rise in prosperity during the industrial era and a slow and painful decline of affluence with the era's passing. This piece is a metaphor for the rise and fall of middle America.

The baffling dynamics of the explosion in the painting mirror the unforeseen decline of wealth. The painting technique is very impressive because the blurred pieces of wood stretch out of the composition and seem as though they may pierce the viewer. The bright color and violence of the piece helps to grab the viewer's attention and shock the audience.