Erickson's Blog

  Introduction: The Edo period of Japan was one of the most influential and well-known eras of art from East Asia, spanning from about 1603 to 1867 in the Meiji restoration when power was restored to the Emperor rather than the military-powers of the Shogun. During this era the art of woodblock printing rose to popularity producing some of the most famous pieces of artwork not just in Japan but world wide using techniques similar to both woodworking and traditional canvas painting. There are various different subsets with in woodblock artwork, such as Sumizuri-e which uses exclusively black ink and sticks to monochrome work to Benizuri-e which used crimson paints with highlights in green. Chose to use Japanese woodblock prints mostly from them being among my favorite types of artwork. Everything about them is colorful and sharp, used for both as traditional artwork and as a method to use in a similar way to campfire stories telling myths and legends. Its a very diverse style of woodwor

  What is Minimalism?      Minimalism, as the name suggests, is an art form which stays bare bones and relies on a show but don't tell mentality to convey its meaning. Minimalism is something that tries to remain calm and not something that shows off using mostly simple colors and shapes to create something bigger than the individual elements that make up the whole.       It rose to prominence during the 1950s and became popular widely during the 1960s. It is a sort of off-shoot of absurdist and abstract art, using unusual shapes and features but minimalism differs in how it is presented. It mirrored the trend that followed through out the 60s, in the era of the Space Race everything took on a sleek yet simple aesthetic. It also emerged as a response to abstract art, seeing it as too emotionally invested. Artists tended to keep emotional influence out of their work, putting more thought into the work itself rather than what it was meant to invoke. Examples of Minimalism Untitled -

  Introduction to Dada and Surrealism: In the wake of the First World War, many were left broken emotionally and mentally turning their attention to the arts as a way of escape for the horrors endured. Veterans of the Western Front especially saw the worst of the fighting from their dark, damp, and cramped trench networks which spanned miles of once beautiful countryside into an artillery hammered, muddy hell of which there seemed to be no escape. Largely caused by unchecked nationalism and saber-rattling that fueled the war, dada and surrealism acted as a reaction towards those them by often depicting the senselessness of endeavors. Dada being German for 'yes yes' but with a nihilist sub tone and surrealism drawing from a dream-like nature, even nightmares.  Indeed many of the most well-known artists and writers of the 1920s and 30s were veterans of the Great War using their sorrow to fuel their passion of the arts, not only to help them escape from the hell on earth they had