The first website I visited was Portal Wisconsin, where there were a number of pieces completed by Wisconsin artists. I felt like that the vast variety of paintings was a little overwhelming at first, but once I got control of the navigation I was very interested in the works on the website.
One of the artists I liked was Katelyn Alain, in her paintings she created a surreal sort of tension. You don't know all of the details but you can feel the fear and lack of comfort for the figure. Her works felt Uncomfortable, but still uncanny. Where you wouldn't be surprised if this was the cover to a horror novel based in the bars of New York or Chicago.
Another piece I liked from Portal Wisconsin is a series by Dana Slowiak on different flowers. They're very simplistic beauty to her flower pieces. The one to the left, Yellow Iris, has a crisp design with a contrasting yellow and purple tone. The colors in each piece balance and create a detail with only positive and negative space of the opposing colors.
On this site I learned what a cohesive gallery looked like, I learned how an engaging thumbnail can catch a viewer's eye. And I learned that artwork is mostly about networking, most of the artists on the sight know one another and interact frequently.
The next site I visited was the Arts Board of Wisconsin. This website doesn't just encourage art in the traditional sense, but also displays poetry and writings. This website seems very official in tone and conveys a more professional approach to the appreciation of art. It contains references to the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Greater Milwaukee Board of Artists. And it's not just arts. There's a mention of a science festival, there's talk of the economic effects of art. It's an expansive and informative website. One of the services it also offers is a grant program to help artists get the money to create. Another is indigenous communities art studies and shows encouraging native american communities to pursue high arts.
I wasn't able to find any art pieces displayed, but I did learn several things about art on this site. I learned that there are a lot of programs for artists to receive money to create. Whether that's donations of supplies, or a grant to create artworks, there are a lot of economic opportunities for artists. I learned that there are also opportunities for combined artworks, competitions where poetry and artwork can be paired together. I finally learned that in Wisconsin there's a big push for inclusivity in art, especially folk art and native american craft work.
The next site I visited was the museum of Wisconsin art. The works featured at this museum are all from Wisconsin artists, contemporary and historical.
One of the artists featured was Joseph Friebert, coined as 'One of Wisconsin's greatest treasures'. His oil paintings have a seasonal sort of Wisconsin feel, that brown and frigid feeling conveyed in each piece.
Another artist's work that I found fascinating was David R. Harper, and his profound and fascinating piece A Fear of Unknown Origin. The lines of animal faces have a sort of uncanny valley feeling as the piece displays the idiom “Entre le Chien et le Loup” (between the dog and the wolf), being unable to differentiate between friend or foe. Harper’s installation unifies the two with a gradual gradient of blue and a corresponding range of expressions, from smiles to snarls.
The museum is focused on a variety of art, and showed me a few interesting things. For one there is an engaged community of Wisconsin artists. I also learned that there are a lot of one-on-one or small group circles for artists to learn from one another and hold small informal seminars in the greater Wisconsin area. And finally there are a lot of options for kids to get involved in the art community, like little kids to teenagers.
The final website was of course Scholastic, the most popular art competition for writing, drawing, sculpture, and photography. The website features a plethora of young artists and their works.
Works such as Abi Graham's pensive and anxious photo titled 'Porcelain'. The angle and black and white photography making the image feel both a sense of peace and a sense of anxiety. The pose from a downward angle makes her seem almost lifeless and bizarre, the unnatural angle and proportions balancing beauty and fear.
Another piece is by Samuel Stoiber titled 'Into the Madness'. The bright cast light and unnatural colors create a surrealist vibe while the stark expression draws the colors to a sharp contrast between bright neon colors and the sudden inescapable madness the figure is portraying.
The scholastic website is a great reference for inspiration, just to see what innovations your peers are coming up with in art or writing. On this site there wasn't a lot to learn about the competition that I didn't already know from last year, but it's always fun to peruse the artworks.