Skylar Du blog 6

The pattern I chose for my cover is Henri Matisse's snow flower. It is an abstract form of a snow flake.  In the painting, Henri Matisse celebrates the qualities of pure 2D form: colors, geometric shapes, lines and blocks.  It was the first time that painting no longer borrow the qualities of sculptures. There is no shading or volume used to create the illusion of a 3D form. Everything is reduced to the most basic qualities that belongs solely to the 2D.

I want to use Henri Matisse's snow flower to remind myself to pursuit art for the sake of art and to pursuit my life for the sake of happiness. It was always hard for me to reconcile what I like with what others like. During my high school years, I would always force myself to do works that fulfill my teacher's requirement. Since every piece was graded by its shading, value and color, works like Henri Matisse's would get an F.  So each time when I tried to experiment with my medium, I would always end up returning to the most traditional or the most acceptable forms. 

The other reason I chose Matisse's work is that he celebrates the aesthetic qualities of color and shapes. This is different from German Expressionists, who inject their emotions into their medium and use colors to express their feelings. I have always been told that works that only celebrates its aesthetic qualities without deep meanings are useless. And I sometimes forced myself to create works that are meaningful. But the truth is, works with shallow meanings can also be great work while works that tried to fake deep meanings are always bad.