Cathy Daley, by Michaela Anderson

Cathy Daley, born 1955, is an Associate Professor at Ontario College of Art and Design, Ontario, Canada. She's published many times in artfairs and solo and group exhibitions, received many awards and has been featured in many collections.1 She utilizes black, oil-pastel silhouettes of abstracted women's bodies to explore her persisting fascination with the female form and identity. In her artist statement, she says her work draws from "cultural images inspired by ballerina tutus, the garb of fairy-tale princesses and Barbie doll couture"1

Untitled 1054, 2017
Oil Pastel on Vellum
43 × 79 in

"Untitled 1054," a piece in her solo show hosted by Newzones, Calgary in 2017, reflects this investigation into the female form; the use of black pastel on translucent vellum enables full expression of motion, bold, expressive lines, and high contrast, Daley's work "investigates childhood memories of what it means to be female in Western culture."1

Untitled 1050, 2017
Oil Pastel on Vellum
43 × 76 in

What drew me to these works was how simple it seemed in theory--high contrast, gray scale paintings with a common motif: women, and femininity. Yet as I looked further into these paintings, I saw what seemed to be ideas that were tied into every painting. Daley's work, like "Untitled 1050," another piece from her show in Newzones, Calgary, is full of an interesting tension. The figures seem to be bold and energetic, but shrouded by abstraction from the waist up. The common consistency of the legs between pieces may reflect Daley's perception of the cultural representation of the feminine and the body. 

Untitled 1063
Oil Pastel on Vellum
24 × 19 in

"Untitled 1063" is another piece from Daley's solo show. Roni Feinstein from Art in America has written that her work "reflect[s] a contemporary, post-feminist ambivalence toward fashion, critiquing the garment industry’s wrapped-and-bound feminine ideal and the notion of woman as spectacle." My first impression was that her work was striking in it's simplicity, but it's left me wondering about femininity as a whole. Her expression has me inspired, and I hope I can achieve her level of emotion in my own work.

References

Daley, Cathy. “About.” Cathy Daley, www.cathydaley.com/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.1

“Cathy Daley.” Cathy Daley, Artsy, www.artsy.net/artist/cathy-daley. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.

“Cathy Daley.” Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/cathy-daley/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.

Catherine Osborne. "Cathy Daley (exhibition)." Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine, Oct.-Dec. 1996, pp. 69-70. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=duke_perkins&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA30079906&sid=summon&asid=c21c837e427c549a0f2b51699540eefd. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.

Campbell, N. (1993). Cathy daley. Matriart, 3(3), 7-11. Retrieved from http://proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/docview/1320569422?accountid=10598

Works cited

Daley, Cathy. "Untitled 1063"
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/cathy-daley-untitled-1063

Daley, Cathy. "Untitled 1050"
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/cathy-daley-untitled-1050

Daley, Cathy. "Untitled 1054"
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/cathy-daley-untitled-1054

Thoughts on Drawing

By Lynea Bull

Drawing this semester has given me the opportunity to work art into my life a little more. These past 4 years at Duke haven't really allowed for me to keep up with art and playing music so it was really nice to get back into it. I was a little skeptical because I enjoy more imaginative/fantasy/cartoon drawings and still life has never been something I've enjoyed. I still don't enjoy still life drawings of inanimate objects. And I especially don't like backgrounds. I think that's mostly because I'm not used to taking so much time and putting so much effort into something that isn't in the foreground or the main figure in the drawing. However, I've learned that I am capable of drawing backgrounds for my drawings. The assignments where we worked in mid-ground and background images into the drawing really helped me out.

I've also learned that I'm not fond of using charcoal at all. I find it really messy and can't seem to figure out how to keep the rest of my drawing clean. I actively avoided it after the one assignment that required it. I might take a stab at it again, sometime this summer, but I don't really see myself getting too invested in using it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this semester. I was so happy to get to draw again. At times, especially when I was feeling the heat of a deadline, drawing for class felt like a chore. Most times, it was very enjoyable. It reminded me of what I used to like doing in high school and it made me really happy. There's a sense of fulfillment you can get from finishing a drawing and being satisfied with its outcome (in whole or even just little parts of the drawing), and I really missed that.

Donatello

Sagrestia Vecchia- La cupolina affrescata.

Donatello
By Lynea B.

Donatello, born Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi in Florence around1386. He was a popular early Italian Renaissance artist who produced many sculptures during his lifetime. His sculptures were made of marble and bronze. Having been educated in his youth at the home of the Martellis (a weathy family of art patrons and bankers) he received artistic training from a goldsmith and then apprenticed with a metalsmith and sculptor. His early work followed the Gothic style but he later developed a more emotional style that incorporated perspective for a realistic look. I’ve selected a few images from the book “Donatello in San Lorenzo a Firenze” that showcased photographs taken by Aurelio Amendola of some of his works. Most of the images in the book depicted Biblical scenes—Donatello was known for doing commissions for churches and of Biblical characters. Donatello died in 1466 in Florence.

I was drawn to the image above because I was particularly drawn to the colors, which the scanner did no justice to. The contrast of the gold and yellow to the backdrop of the dark blues of the night sky are really amazing. This painting was done on a high, domed ceiling. This is one of the few, non-Biblical works of Donatello.

Pulpito Della Passione- Crocefissione.

The reason I chose Donatello was because while browsing the stacks in Lily library, I was drawn to the long spine of the book that had his name written on it in all caps. I honestly knew nothing about Donatello beside the fact that one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was named after him, meaning he was a Renaissance artist. I wanted to know more about him and see some of his work. That proved to be a bit difficult when web search kept giving me the Ninja Turtle instead of the Italian Renaissance Artist. Donatello was mostly a sculptor, but using the internet to find images of sketches he might’ve done was pretty much impossible because sketches of turtles was all I was finding. Unfortunately, the book I used as my main source had only photographs of sculptures and buildings. This makes sense granted that sculptures are more likely than sketches to survive hundreds of years.

Pulpito Della Resurrezione- Ascensione.

Sagrestia Vecchia- San Giovanni.

I think these sculptures really show the emotional style Donatello became well known for. He moved farther and farther away from the expressionless, Gothic style with long emphasized lines and more into a emotional, realistic style. One of his most famous works, a sculpture of David, was done during an earlier part in his career and exemplifies the Gothic style.